NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain the petition filed by Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2005.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Malik said that the Arnab Goswami case order is in his favour. He questioned the applicability of PMLA in the case.
"There is no predicate offence here," he said.
"We are not inclined to exercise jurisdiction under Article 136 when the investigation is at the nascent stage...You can apply for bail before an appropriate court", the top court said.
The probe agency had arrested the state minister on February 23 in a probe connected to a money laundering case over an alleged land deal concerning an aide of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. He has been under custody ever since his arrest.
The special leave petition was filed challenging a Bombay High court that had refused to grant him interim release.
“What we prima facie feel is that projection/claiming a property as untainted property is the objectionable act forming part of an offence under Section 3 of the Act of 2002… We have not gone into the papers of investigation…Considering all the above-referred grounds; we are not inclined to allow the prayers in the said applications. Resultantly, Interim Applications are rejected,” the Bombay high court had said in an order dated March 15, 2022, while rejecting the pleas.
The high court had said that the case failed the twin test for release from custody.
"…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 high court added in its order.