Supreme Court adjourns hearing in Nawab Malik's petition until July

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by former Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday. Malik has been in jail since February 23, 2022, in connection with a money laundering case. The court announced that the hearing will resume in July, after the summer vacation.

Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh, presiding over the bench, stated that the High Court has the freedom to address the matter in the interim. Former Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, who is currently in jail, had appealed to the Supreme Court after the High Court postponed his bail plea hearing until June 6.

The Supreme Court did not specify a specific date for the High Court hearing, despite Senior advocate Kapil Sibal's request for a hearing next week. Sibal had previously informed the court that Malik is suffering from kidney failure, following the trial court's denial of his bail application on November 30, 2022.

In February 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Malik, accusing him of illegally acquiring a property in Kurla with the assistance of Haseena Parkar, the late sister of underworld figure Dawood Ibrahim, between 1999 and 2006. The ED claimed that since Parkar was involved in Dawood's illicit activities, the money obtained from the property was ultimately used for terrorist financing.