Nawab Malik (File)The Supreme Court Friday dismissed Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik’s plea seeking bail in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
Rejecting his appeal against the March 15, 2022, Bombay High Court order that had refused him the relief, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said that the case is at an initial stage. “The matter is at a nascent stage. You may approach the special court for the bail,” said the court.
“We are not inclined to exercise the jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution. The observations of the High Court on merits, it is clarified, are confined to the question of whether interim relief was to be granted. They shall not come in the way of parties taking recourse to their rights and remedies in accordance with law,” the SC said in its order.
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Appearing for Malik, senior advocate Kapil Sibal contended that he had been arrested in 2022 for something that happened in 1999. He contended that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cannot, therefore, apply as there is no predicate offence. “There is no predicate offence. How does PMLA apply?” he asked.
The ED had filed a chargesheet against Malik in connection with the probe into the money transactions over his land deal with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister, Haseena Parkar, through her driver Salim Patel.
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