Supreme Court grants temporary medical bail to NCP's Nawab Malik for two months

The Supreme Court on Friday granted temporary medical bail to former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik in a money laundering case [Nawab Malik vs Directorate of Enforcement and anr]..The bail will be for a period of two months.A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi made it clear that the bail order is on medical grounds and not on merits."He is in hospital for kidney disease and ailments. Let counter affidavit be filed to the main petition within 5 weeks and rejoinder and thereafter in 3 weeks. List after 10 weeks. Bail granted. We are passing the order strictly on medical conditions and have not entered merits," the order said.The Court passed the order on a plea filed by Malik against a Bombay High Court order rejecting the temporary medical bail plea..Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Malik, highlighted Malik's medical condition."Complaint stands filed. I do not know why they need me inside. One kidney has completely failed," Sibal said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), said he will not object to temporary medical bail for a stipulated period. .The ED had arrested Malik on allegations that he had purchased certain property at a rate lower than market value.After a special PMLA court took cognisance of the chargesheet in May 2022, Malik filed for regular bail.Malik had moved High Court after a Mumbai special court rejected his bail plea in the matter on November 30, 2022.In his plea before the High Court, filed through Rashmikant & Partners, Malik stated that the Special Court had failed to take into consideration the observations made by the High Court in its order granting bail to former Maharashtra Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh.The High Court had heard Malik's bail plea on medical grounds first and reserved the plea on that limited point. It had then rejected the plea for medical bail leading to the present appeal before the top court.