Nawab Malik moves SC against HC order rejecting his interim plea for release

Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik has moved the Supreme Court against an order of the Bombay High Court which had rejected his interim application seeking immediate release in a case of moneylaunderingIn his plea which has been drafted by advocate Ankur Chawla Malik has challenged the March 15 order of the division bench of the high court which had rejected the application saying just because the special PMLA courts order remanding him in custody is not in his favour it does not make that order illegal or wrongThe special leave petition SLP has been filed by advocate V D KhannaAfter the Enforcement Directorate had arrested Malik under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA he had filed a habeas corpus plea in the high court claiming that his arrest by the ED and the consequent remands were illegalThe high court had said that Maliks counsel had argued before the PMLA court and vehemently opposed the EDs request for the ministers custodyThere is also merit in the submissions of the Additional Solicitor General ASG that merely because the special court granted the custody of petitioner Malik would not make that order illegal ipso facto because the petitioner is aggrieved the high court had saidThe high court had said that Malik was arrested by the ED in accordance with the law and subsequently been remanded to the probe agencys custody and then to judicial custody following due processIt had noted that Malik had gone to the EDs office for questioning on February 23 the day he was arrested in response to previous summons issued to him by the central agencyHe was then issued an arrest order and taken into custody by the ED the high court had saidIn the present case there is no dispute on the factual aspect that custody order is passed by the competent court of jurisdiction the special court the high court had saidAnd secondly merely because the order is against the petitioner it cannot be termed as patently illegal the court had saidMalik was arrested by the ED over a property deal allegedly linked to the aides of gangster Dawood IbrahimSoon after his arrest the minister had filed a habeas corpus plea in the high court challenging his arrest and the remand ordersAs an interim prayer he had sought that he be released from custody immediatelyThe high court had said that Maliks petition had raised some debatable issues and the court needed to hear at length the arguments from both sides before passing any final ordersThe central agency has accused Malik of being part of an alleged criminal conspiracy to usurp a property in Mumbais Kurla area which currently has a market value of Rs 300 crore and belongs rightfully to one Munira PlumberMalik had contended before the high court that he had bought the property in a bonafide transaction three decades ago and Plumber has now changed her mind about the transactionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever