The Bombay High Court on Tuesday rejected the interim bail application of Maharashtra Minister and senior NCP leader Nawab Malik in a money laundering case, after holding that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had duly followed the requirement under section 19 the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in effecting Malik’s arrest.
Rejecting Malik’s contention that his arrest was illegal and his plea for interim bail, a HC bench of Justices SM Modak and PM Varale noted: “In the present case, there is no dispute on the factual aspect that custody order is passed by the competent Court of jurisdiction i.e., the Special Court and secondly, merely because the order is against the Petitioner it cannot be termed as patently illegal or suffers from non application of mind. In our opinion, this twin test is duly applied in the present matter.”
The HC bench also noted that “... we find merit in the submission of learned Additional Solicitor General (ASG) that the requirement of Section 19 (of PMLA) is duly followed”.
“At this stage, we are not impressed by the arguments of learned Senior Advocate Shri Desai that there is no act attributable to the Petitioner so as to attract the provisions of the PMLA, 2002,” the Judges noted.
Holding that the investigation initiated by the ED was at an initial stage, the bHC bench observed that the court was not expected to assess evidence and record any finding in respect of material collected by the probe agency. “So we deem it proper to peruse them (the papers) once the Petitioner will argue the Petition to the fullest extent,” the Judges noted.
Malik was arrested by the ED officials on February 23 in connection with the purchase of a huge plot of plot of land at “a throw-away price” from two alleged henchmen of Karachi-based Dawood Ibrahim.
The ED’s contention is that Malik and his family had purchased 2.80 acre plot of land from the “front men” of Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parker -- Mohammad Salim Patel -- and 1993 blasts accused Badshah Khan at a throw away price in 2005.
In the backdrop of the ED’s contention, the HC bench noted: “When we have perused the un-amended provisions of Section 3 we may find that “process or activity connected with proceeds of crime” is one of ingredient. It’s a wider term. Its constitutional validity is not challenged before us. So prima facie we feel that the said contention cannot be accepted at this stage”.
“There is an FIR registered by NIA dated 03.02.2022 and on that basis there is ECIR registered on 14.02.2022. There are also previous FIRs and on that basis separate ECIR in the year 2017 and 2019 were registered. Now the Enforcement agency has merged them and combined investigation is undertaken... Considering all the above referred grounds, we are not inclined to allow the prayers in the said applications. Resultantly, Interim Applications are rejected,” the HC bench ruled.
After being in the custody of ED for 12 days, Malik is currently in the Judicial custody till March 21 in the money laundering case.