Bombay HC refuses urgent hearing of NCP leader Nawab Malik’s bail plea

The former Maharashtra Minority Affairs and Skill Development Minister was arrested on February 24 and has been lodged at Arthur Road Jail since March 7

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant an urgent hearing to senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik’s plea for bail on the basis of a medical emergency in connection with a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Senior advocate Amit Desai representing Mr. Malik appeared before a Single Bench of justice M.S. Karnik and said only one of his kidneys was functional and he required an urgent transplant.

ED’s counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh said the five-time Member of Legislative Assembly was being treated in a private hospital since May 2022. To this, the court said there was no urgency and that other pleas were pending. The Bench directed the ED to reply to Mr. Malik’s bail plea and posted the matter to be heard on January 6.

The former Maharashtra Minority Affairs and Skill Development Minister was arrested on February 24 and has been lodged at Arthur Road Jail since March 7.

He is mired in an alleged money laundering case of 1999 in which he is believed to have bought an ancestral property in suburban Mumbai from two sisters through underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar (now dead) for a substantial amount of ₹55 lakhs whereas the property is claimed to cost ₹3.3 crores. The offence allegedly committed by Mr. Malik is not giving the owners any consideration for the said property.

The charge sheet filed by the central agency mentions, his “active involvement in terror funding.” The ED has contended that Mr. Malik’s dealings involve proceeds of crime from an organised sector that has international ramifications.