In a big setback to Nawab Malik, former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader, the Bombay High Court on Thursday refused bail to him on medical grounds in a money laundering case investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with property dealings with globally designated terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's sister.
A single judge bench of Justice Anuja Prabhudessai rejected his plea for the temporary bail due to health reasons.
The court, however, said that it will hear Malik's plea for bail on merits in two weeks.
According to Malik's counsel, physical condition of his client was serious as he suffered from kidney ailments.
Apart from the medical treatment, Malik is required to live in a stress free environment, he said.
The ED, on the contrary, opposed the submission as Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh on its behalf told the court that everyone at some level has stress and that this couldn't be a ground to seek bail.
Malik has been a strong voice for support for the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government. He used to fire salvo on daily basis at the central agencies, including the Narcotics Control Bureau in Aryan Khan drug case, during his term. The NCP had refused to seek his resignation even after his arrest.
On May 16, the Supreme Court had refused to consider his plea for urgent hearing on his bail application.
The top court had then fixed the matter for hearing in July second week in connection with the money laundering case lodged against him for his alleged involvement in property dealings with Haseena Parkar, late sister of designated terrorist Dawood Ibrahim during 1999-2005.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh had then said the Bombay High Court would be at liberty to take his application.
The ED had arrested the former minister on February 23, 2022 in connection with a money laundering case over the land deal concerning an aide of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. He has been under custody and has been lodged at Arthur Road Jail since then.
A Special Court in Mumbai in November, 2022, had rejected his bail application in the case.
The ED alleged that Munira Plumber's prime property in Mumbai's Kurla, worth Rs 300 crore as per current market value, was usurped by Malik through Solidus Investments Pvt Ltd, a company purportedly owned by his family members, in connivance with Parkar, her bodyguard Salim Patel and 1993 bomb blasts convict Sardar Shah Wali Khan.
Malik filed for regular bail, after a special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court took cognizance of the chargesheet against him in May 2022.
Malik, in his petition, said that the Special Court had failed to take into consideration the observations made by the High Court in its order granting bail to former Maharashtra Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh.
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