NCP leader Nawab Malik.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant an urgent hearing to senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab MalikтАЩs 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.
EDтАЩs counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh said the┬аfive-time Member of Legislative Assembly┬аwas 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. MalikтАЩs bail plea and posted the matter to be heard on January 6.
The┬аformer Maharashtra Minority Affairs and Skill Development┬аMinister┬аwas arrested on February 24 and has been lodged at Arthur Road Jail since March 7.
He┬аis 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┬аunderworld don┬аDawood┬аIbrahimтАЩs┬аsister Haseena Parkar (now dead) for a substantial amount of тВ╣55 lakhs whereas the property is claimed to cost тВ╣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┬аmentions, his┬атАЬactive involvement in terror funding.тАЭ The ED has contended that Mr. MalikтАЩs dealings involve proceeds of crime from an organised sector that has international ramifications.
