The Supreme Court on Friday granted two months’ interim bail to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA and former Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik. The Opposition NCP in the state has welcomed the apex court order granting relief to the party’s “strong and loud voice”. "The party welcomes Nawab Malik wholeheartedly. We eagerly await his return. He has been the strong and loud voice of the party and it is good to know that the court has given him bail," said Mahesh Tapase, spokesperson for the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. The Supreme Court on Friday granted two months’ interim bail to Malik on medical grounds. The Bombay High Court had rejected the same observing that he was provided adequate medical help at a private hospital of his choice and as his health was also being monitored by specialist medical practitioners, his right to health or life was not infringed in any manner. The ED had arrested the former minister on February 23 last year in a money laundering case registered over the Goawala compound property in Kurla, allegedly linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. He has been in judicial custody since March 2022 and has been admitted at Criticare Hospital, Kurla, since May last year. The special court had said that he would remain in the hospital until further orders. Malik, a strong voice against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will now have to choose a side on his release. He will either have to remain with his mentor and NCP chief Sharad Pawar as an Opposition MLA or join the government with Pawar's nephew Ajit, who has been the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra since he joined the BJP-led ruling dispensation.
