Mumbai. The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik’s plea seeking his release from judicial custody following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case. The case is from about 20 years ago. Malik, 62, who was arrested by the ED on February 23, has in the petition termed his arrest and remand by the central agency as “illegal” and sought quashing of the special PMLA court’s order, which remanded him to ED custody.
Maliki’s legal team Rashmikant & Partners argued that the illegal acts of the ED made his continued detention illegal. They have been given the right to take the benefit of habeas corpus and to be released immediately without any right of action.
However, Justice P.B. Varale and Justice S.M. Modak rejected Malik’s plea. He said that some debatable issues have been raised which need to be heard in detail.
During the hearing, Malik’s counsel, senior advocate Amit Desai, argued that Malik was implicated in the case, which was based on statements of persons of no credibility and alleged financial transactions against the minister between 1999 and 2003 to 2005. when the Money Laundering Act did not exist.
Desai reiterated that the PMLA was invoked by arresting Malik in a 22-year-old case and sought his immediate release in view of the prevailing circumstances of the case.
Opposing the plea, ED’s counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh questioned the maintainability of Malik’s plea, saying the remand order was given after careful consideration of all material evidence and presentations before the Special PMLA Court. Money laundering was a separate offence, to which Section 45 of the PMLA is applicable. He demanded that the petition should be dismissed.
According to the ED, Malik had purchased a property in Kurla through the Goawala compound, power of attorney holder Sardar Shahawali Khan and one Salim Patel. Khan is currently in jail in the serial blasts case of March 12, 1993. Salim is a henchman of the absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar’s sister Haseena Parkar.
Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has strongly demanded that Malik should resign or be sacked from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet.
—AnyTV News
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