SC REJECTS BAIL TO NAWAB MALIK IN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

                     From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik of the Nationalist Congress Party, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case for allegedly buying a property of an aide of absconding gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Mumbai

A Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court order of March 15 since the probe is still at a nascent stage. It, however, advised him to avail the remedy available under the law before the trial court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Malik, assertin that there is no case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since there is no predicate offence. He said Malik was arrested in 2022 for something that happened over two decades earlier in 1999.

On March 15, the Bombay High Court had rejected Malik’s interim application seeking immediate release in a case of money laundering, saying just because the special PMLA court’s order remanding him in custody is not in his favour; it does not make that order illegal or wrong.

The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Malik in February under provisions of the PMLA after which he had filed a habeas corpus plea in the high court. However, the high court said he still has the option to seek bail from the special cout, which remanded him to the ED’s custody first and then in the judicial custody.

The central agency has accused Malik of being part of an alleged criminal conspiracy to usurp a property in Mumbai’s Kurla area which currently has a market value of Rs 300 crore and belongs rightfully to one Munira Plumber.

Malik contended before the HC that he had bought the property in a bonafide transaction decades ago, and Plumber has now changed her mind about the transaction.

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