MUMBAI: Observing that points price a debate had been raised by state minister Nawab Malik towards the cash laundering case slapped on him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Bombay excessive court docket admitted his petition however refused his plea for interim launch from custody.
The ED had arrested Malik, 62, on February 23 in a cash laundering case linked to an alleged land cope with UNtagged ‘world terrorist’ Dawood Ibrahim’s sister in Kurla.
He has been in custody since. Malik had filed a habeas corpus petition, claiming his arrest was “unlawful’’, and sought quashing of the ED case, saying his actions couldn't entice the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA). His senior counsel Amit Desai added there may very well be no retrospective invocation of the felony legislation that got here into pressure in July 2005. The alleged Goawala compound deal was between 1999 and 2005.
The HC was not impressed with the competition that Malik’s acts didn’t entice the PMLA. “Course of or exercise linked with proceeds of crime” is “a wider time period” and Malik’s authorized competition of “retrospective’’ utility of legislation “prima facie… can't be accepted at this stage”, the HC mentioned.
“What we prima facie really feel is that claiming a property as untainted property is the ob- jectionable act forming a part of an offence underneath part 3 (cash laundering) of the Act,” mentioned the bench of Justices P B Varale and S M Modak. However it added: “As sure debatable points are raised within the petition, together with the problem of maintainability, these points are required to be heard at size. ” The HC didn't go into the deserves or probe papers and can peruse them when the matter is argued lastly.
Malik, by Desai and advocates Taraq Sayed and Kushal Mor, claimed his arrest was “political vendetta” over a 22-year-old “legitimate transaction’’, and with out following due course of underneath the Felony Process Code, solely to maintain him behind bars.
For the ED, ASG Anil Singh and counsel Hiten Venegaonkar mentioned the land was nonetheless in possession of the accused and therefore it turned a seamless offence underneath the PMLA. Desai mentioned “possession” as ingredient of offence was launched within the legislation in 2013 and “persevering with offence” as an “clarification” in 2019.
The HC mentioned Malik has admitted he attended the ED workplace in response to summons. He was served with an arrest order and the grounds of his arrest had been defined. He was remanded in custody by a particular PMLA court docket, identified the HC. It discovered advantage within the ASG’s submission that part 19 (energy of arrest) underneath PMLA was “duly adopted”.