Malik moves SC challenging Bombay HC order denying bail

New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik has moved to Supreme Court, challenging the Bombay High Court's order denying him interim bail post a habeas corpus petition. He claimed that he was arrested illegally, IANS reported.

The Bombay High Court declined to grant him bail on March 15 on a case of money laundering registered by the Enforcement Department (ED). Malik was sent to judicial custody till April 4. He was arrested on February 23 on the basis of an FIR registered against terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.

Denying him bail, the Bombay HC observed that just because the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court's order remanding him in custody is not in his favour, the order does not become wrong.

However, Malik claimed in his plea to SC that the HC denying him interim release violates the settled position of Arnab Goswami vs Maharashtra government case. Malik's plea argued that the petition was strictly on the law, and the HC could not invoke Section 3 of PMLA without giving reasons.

According to ED, Malik had usurped Munira Plumber's prime property in Kurla, which is worth Rs 300 crore as per current market value, through Solidus Investments Pvt Ltd, owned by Malik's family. The move was made with the help of Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar, her bodyguard Salim Patel and 1993 bomb blasts convict Sardar Shah Wali Khan, ED claims.