Bombay High Court to hear on March 2 Nawab Malik's plea against arrest in money laundering case

The Bombay High Court will hear on Wednesday the petition filed by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik who was arrested last week seeking quashing of the case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate ED which is probing money laundering linked to fugitive underworld don Dawood IbrahimMalik who is currently in the EDs custody till March 3 had on Monday filed a petition in the HC claiming his arrest was illegal and sought immediate releaseOn Tuesday his advocate Taraq Sayed mentioned the plea before a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N R Borkar seeking urgent hearingThe court was informed that the regular bench of Justices P B Varale and S P Tawde designated to hear criminal petitions would not be available this weekJustice Shinde then said his bench would also not be available on Wednesday The matter shall be listed for hearing before a bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap on Wednesday he saidNCP leader Malik on Monday filed a petition in the high court seeking to quash the case and also the order passed by a special court remanding him in the EDs custodyHe alleged that his arrest was illegal and that he was targeted for being a vocal critic of the misuse of central agenciesThe petitioner stated that he is not the first to be targeted and this is a worrying trend across the nation where central agencies are being misused by the party in powerThe political rivals of the petitioner naturally have been deeply embarrassed by the exposes carried out by the petitioner and the present brazen and completely illegal action of the ED is to try to muzzle him the petition saidMalik claimed that he has absolutely no connection with any of the antinational accused Dawood Ibrahim and other gangsters named in the FIR registered by the NIA which was the basis of the EDs caseIn his petition Malik stated that he was forcibly picked up from his residence by the ED officials on February 23 without any notice or summons under section 41A of the Criminal Procedure CodeThe minister further stated that the February 23 order of the special court designated to hear the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA cases was without jurisdictionThe EDs case is that Malik in connivance with Dawood Ibrahims aides Haseena Parker Salim Patel and Sardar Khan hatched a criminal conspiracy for usurping the ancestral property of one Munira Plumber at Kurla in Mumbai which is valued at around Rs 300 crore Thus it is the proceeds of crime the federal antimoney laundering agency had claimedThe probe agencys case is based on an FIR filed recently by the National Investigation Agency NIA against Dawood Ibrahim and others The NIA had filed its criminal complaint under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPAThe statement of state Miniroty Affairs Minister Malik was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLAIn his petition Malik said the case in hand pertains to a property purchase done two decades ago when PMLA was not on the statute book and hence there cannot be any retrospective application of the ActThis 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