Nawab Malik allowed to get tested at new hospital, to bear costs

A Mumbai court has allowed former Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik to get a scan done at another hospital, but he will have to shoulder the costs.

A Mumbai court has allowed former Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik to get a scan done at another hospital after the medical facility was not available at the private hospital where he is presently admitted.

Special judge RN Rokde has directed Superintendent of Arthur Road Jail to take Malik to a PET CT & Nuclear Imaging Centre in Ghatkopar for a scan at his own expense on Wednesday. He shall be escorted by necessary police personnel and the expenses incurred for police escort shall also be borne by Malik, the court specified. After the scan, the NCP leader will be taken back to the hospital where he has been put up since May 13.

Malik, 62, through his lawyer Taraq Sayed informed the court that he has undergone surgery twice at the hospital where he has been lodged since May 13. However, Sayed said that Malik needs to undergo a scan to evaluate his kidney function and further course of medical treatment would depend on results of the scan.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had arrested Nawab Malik, did not oppose the application and left it to the discretion of the court. Judge Rokde perused the weekly report submitted by the jail Superintendent. The judge noted, “It is not the case of the prosecution that Malik had misused the liberty during the period of hospitalisation” at private hospital.

Malik was arrested on February 23 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the ED in a probe linked to activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.