INDIA. Mumbai: NCP leader and former Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik (64), arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case linked to absconding underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was granted interim bail for two months on medical grounds by the Supreme Court, nearly after 1.5 years on Friday.
Malik was arrested by ED on February 23, 2022, on charges of buying a property located at Goawala Compound in Kurla, in North Central Mumbai, using a fabricated power of attorney, in September 2005. He was accused of conspiring with the late Haseena Parkar, Dawood’s sister. He was accused of purchasing the land at a rate lower than market value and using the proceeds amounting to Rs 15.99 crore generated through rent for terror funding.
On Friday, a division bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi passed the order on a plea filed by Malik against a Bombay High Court order rejecting his temporary medical bail plea.
The court made it clear that the interim bail was being granted strictly on medical conditions and not merits since he is in hospital for kidney disease and ailments. The counter affidavit should be filed to the main petition within 5 weeks and thereafter rejoinder in 3 weeks. The matter is listed for further hearing after 10 weeks, the bench ruled.
After a special PMLA court took cognisance of the ED charge sheet in May 2022 and rejected his bail application, on November 30, 2022, Malik filed regular bail in the Bombay High Court.
In his appeal, he stated that the PMLA Special Court had failed to take into consideration the observations made by the Bombay High Court in its order granting bail to former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh (also arrested by ED). However, the High Court rejected his bail plea on medical grounds leading to the present appeal before the Supreme Court.
After his son-in-law, Sameer Khan was arrested in a drugs case by the NCB’s Mumbai unit led by the then Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, Malik had criticised Wankhede for irregularities following a raid conducted on a cruise ship off Mumbai’s coast in October 2021.
Also Read: ED Conducts Raids in “Cash for Jobs Scam” in Tamil Nadu
