The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved for order the habeas corpus (produce person in court) petition filed by Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik challenging his "illegal" arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in alleged money laundering case related to fugitive Gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
A division bench of justices P B Varale and SM Modak will pronounce the order on March 15.
Malik was arrested by the ED on February 23 for allegedly hatching a criminal conspiracy for usurping one Munira Plumber's ancestral property in Kurla having current market value of around Rs 300 crore. After 13 days of ED custody, he is at present in judicial custody.
The HC Reserved the order following extensive arguments by both parties that lasted over three days.
On Friday Malik's counsel Amit Desai argued on the issue of possession and what constituted a continuous offence. He said that in the offence of laundering, three persons are involved - one who commits theft, second who commits the laundering and the third who is in possession.
Earlier, Desai had argued that the state minister's arrest and the subsequent remands were illegal. Seeking quashing of the arrest and remand orders, Desai had sought that Malik ve released from the custody in the interim till the final decision on his petition.
ED counsels -- Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh and advocate Hiten Venegaokar -- had opposed the plea stating that Malik had been arrested following due procedure. Further they had contended that the special PMLA judge had remanded Malik to custody after a lengthy hearing which showed that the remand was not a mechanical one.
ED had also contended that the relief sought by Malik was in the nature of bail.
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