NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to list the special leave petition filed by Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the case before the bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana. “The Act (PMLA) came into place in 2005 while the transaction is prior to 2000. A transaction from 22 years ago is sought to proceed,” he contended.
The probe agency had arrested Malik on February 23 over a land deal concerning an aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The case was filed after studying a February FIR of the NIA that booked Ibrahim and other members of his dreaded gang like Anees Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Javed Chikna and Tiger Memon.
The NCP minister has been under custody ever since his arrest, with the Mumbai special court extending his remand from time to time. Malik’s special leave petition challenged the Bombay HC decision
to not grant him interim release.
On Wednesday, the ED said it has attached multiple assets of jailed Malik under the anti-money laundering law in the high-prfile case against Dawood and his underworld gang.
The attached properties include Goawala compound and a commercial unit in Mumbai’s suburban Kurla (West), a 147.79 acre agricultural land located in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra, three flats in Kurla (West) and two residential flats in Bandra (West), the investigative agency said in a statement.