Nawab Malik, a former minister of Maharashtra, was on Friday granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money-laundering case on medical grounds. Malik, a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in February last year in a money-laundering case linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Malik has been granted bail for two months.
Malik’s arrest in 2022 came in the backdrop of his tirade against Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) former zonal director Sameer Wankhede, accusing him of wrongdoings in the anti-drugs raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai’s coast in October 2021. Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was among those arrested in the raid carried out by the anti-drugs agency.
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The development comes as a significant relief for Malik who had moved the Bombay High Court seeking bail on similar grounds was turned down. The court had then said that Malik’s right to life was not infringed in any manner as he had been getting “specialised medical assistance”.
Seeking relief, Malik has argued that he suffers from a chronic kidney disease and only has one functional kidney. His legal team has also claimed that Malik’s health has deteriorated in the past eight months as his illness had started to affect his other organs as well.
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Malik is under the ED’s scanner for a property deal that he entered into with Haseena Parkar, sister of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Malik allegedly bought this property — 3 acres of land at Goawala Compound on LBS Marg in Kurla, Mumbai — for Rs 85 lakh, of which Rs 30 lakh was shown in sale agreement and the rest was paid in cash. The ED has alleged that the registered value of the property was much lower than the prevailing market rate.
According to the ED, Parkar transferred her interest in the property held through Salim Patel for the beneficial interest of Malik in 2005. The ED has claimed that Sardar Shahwali Khan, who has underworld links, played an important role in the sale.