Arrested for transaction done 22 years ago: Nawab Malik tells Bombay HC
India Today
Nawab Malik told the Bombay High Court that he has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a transaction which is 22 years old. ED arrested Malik in connection with a case related to elements linked to Dawood Ibrahim and the underworld.
Maharashtra cabinet minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that he has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a transaction, which is 22 years old, by retrospective application of provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
On Tuesday, the hearing began with Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh telling the division bench of Justices PB Varale and SM Modak that the agency was opposing the maintainability of the plea and had filed a reply also on those very lines.
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However, Advocate Amit Desai insisted that a Habeas Corpus plea was filed by him, and so the court should hear him. Desai contended that Malik has been implicated though there were no predicate offences and although there was no continuance of the offence, provisions of PMLA were invoked. I am only saying that there no is predicate offence with which I am concerned. Then there is an old FIR. Then there is an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) which they claim is based on Mumbai FIRs but no details are given, Desai said.
He pointed out that the transactions in which Malik has been implicated are from 1999, 2003 and 2005.
"There is invocation of PMLA under Section 3 and Section 19 powers. The PMLA was notified in 2005. There was no PMLA in 1999, 2003. Can Section 3 be made applicable to 1999 and 2003?" Desai asked.
"In the paragraph of the remand order - all the facts mentioned are prior to 2005. The argument was that Malik’s family was still in possession, that is the offence. 22 years later you pick up a man and say 'continuing offence'. But you want to bypass 45(2) (of PMLA) and keep the man in custody," he added.
