The Bombay High Court on Thursday (July 13) rejected the interim medical bail plea filed by Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik.
A single-judge Bench of justice Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing a bail plea filed by the former Minister of Minority Affairs. He was arrested on February 24, 2022 and has been lodged at Arthur Road Jail. Currently he is in a private hospital being treated for a chronic kidney disease which is progressing.
The court on Thursday rejected the interim medical bail and said it will hear the bail plea on merits after two weeks.
Senior advocate Amit Desai appearing for Mr. Malik had earlier informed the court that his disease has an impact on other organs and that he is genuinely suffering from something that was before his arrest and it has been accentuated due to the custody. Mr. Desai contended that law has always taken a humane approach and that is a facet of Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution of India. Courts have been indulgent in granting medical bail or interim bail if the condition of the accused is serious and needs to be attended to in an environment which is stressful for the condition of patient.
ED’s counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh had opposed the bail plea saying Mr. Deshmukh’s left kidney is shrunk but his right kidney is alright. Nowhere does it say that 60% is non-functional. The reports relied by Mr. Desai are from two years before his arrest and this problem was there in the year 2020, even with such kidneys, he was leading a normal life. There are people who donate kidneys and live with one kidney, he said. Mr. Singh added it is not like his left kidney problem started post arrest and he is already in a hospital of his own choice.
Mr. Malik is mired in an alleged money laundering case of 1999 where he is believed to have bought an ancestral property in suburban Mumbai from two sisters through underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar (now dead) for a substantial amount of ₹55 lakhs, whereas the property is claimed to be costing ₹3.3 crores. The offence allegedly committed by Mr. Malik is not giving the owners any consideration for the said property.
