After 18 months, SC grants bail to Nawab Malik

The ED arrested Nawab Malik in a property deal that happened between 1999 and 2005. File pic

Former Maharashtra cabinet minister and senior NCP leader Nawab Malik was granted interim relief for two months on medical grounds by the Supreme Court on Friday. Malik was arrested by the ED in February last year in connection with the money laundering case linked with D-Company. Earlier, the Bombay High Court and the special ED court had rejected Malik's bail plea following which he approached the Supreme Court.

The bail was granted by a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi. The bench clarified that the interim bail is not on merit but on medical grounds. Malik was arrested in connection with the case registered against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates by the NIA. The ED took cognisance, registered a money laundering case, and during the course of investigation allegedly found links to Malik indicating he usurped property located in Goawala Compound in Kurla in connivance with Hasina Parkar, the late sister of Ibrahim.

IN PHOTOS: NCP leader Nawab Malik gets bail from Supreme Court

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Nawab Malik was arrested in connection with the case registered against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates by the NIA. File pic

The ED arrested Malik in property deal that happened between 1999 and 2005. According to ED, During the course of investigation, it was revealed that one victim of the D-Gang, Munira Plumber, whose prime property was allegedly usurped by Malik through M/s Solidus Investments pvt. Ltd., a company owned by his family members and controlled by him with active connivance of the members of D-Gang including Haseena Parkar. To ascertain the factual position, statement of the actual owner of the land - Plumber - was recorded under Section 50 of PMLA.

In her statement she (plumber) stated, that she owns plot admeasuring approx. 3 acres known as Goawala Compound, LBS Marg, near Phoenix Market in Kurla and it was her ancestral property inherited by Fazleabbas Goawala from his forefather (Mohamnd Ali Goawala). Fazleabbas Gozwala was her father and he died in 1970, when she was 7-years-old. After her father's demise, the property was divided between her mother and her as per Islamic law - it was divided as per ratio 1 is to 7 and she got 7/8. As an adult, she started to take care of the property with help of her stepbrother, namely Mustafa Rangwala. She appointed a manager, Rahman, to collect the rent from tenants of the said property. Her mother Maryam Goawala died in 2015. Plumber is now sole owner of the said property.

Months after his arrest, the ED filed a 7,000 pages charge sheet against Malik claiming he usurped the property at Goawala compound in Kurla in connivance with D gang and Parkar. The legal team of Malik has always claimed that the property was purchased through genuine power of attorney and the case of ED was baseless and the agency had nothing to prove. The team claimed that in a charge sheet filed by agency, there are only 17 witnesses' statements and most of them have criminal backgrounds and are associated with the D gang. The agency has relied on their statements to prove the link of NCP minister with the underworld. According to ED, Malik conspired with Parkar and her driver Saleem Patel and Sardar Khan, a convict in the 1993 blasts case, to illegally grab the 3 acres land at Goawala compound which belongs to the complainant, Munira Plumber. The agency has taken the statement of Iqbal Kaskar to prove that Patel was driver of Parkar and also a member of NCP as per Malik's statement given to ED. The ED has also taken the statement of Alishan Parkar, the son of Hasina Parkar, to further establish Malik's link with D company.

Alishan in his statement, stated that Patel was one of the associates of his mother Haseena Parkar; Patel used to trade in onions and dabble in property dealings. Parkar and Patel had settled the dispute in one Goawala building in Kurla and later on took over the part of this compound by opening an office there. Alishan claimed he was not aware about the nature of the dispute related to this property, but on behalf of his mother, Patel used to handle the affairs of Goawala Compound. Later Alishan claimed his mother sold the portion controlled by her to Malik but he is not aware of the amount paid by Malik to his mother and Patel.

Before his arrest, Malik took multiple press conferences on the arrested of Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan alleging that he was wrongly framed by the former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, following which the NCB began an enquiry against Malik and the allegations levelled against Wankhede and found them to be true.