Bombay HC may hear Nawab Malik, Anil Deshmukh's bail plea on Friday: Report

Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik moved the Bombay high court on Thursday after their plea for one-day bail was rejected by a special PMLA court in Mumbai during the day.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected to urgently hear the bail pleas of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and state minority affairs minister Nawab Malik to vote for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on Friday. The court is likely to hear the pleas on Friday morning, news agency ANI reported.

Both Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are in judicial custody in money laundering cases. (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

The duo had moved the high court on Thursday after their plea for one-day bail was rejected by a special PMLA court in Mumbai. Both Deshmukh and Malik are currently in judicial custody in money laundering cases.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier opposed their bail pleas saying prisoners do not have voting rights, citing the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

Deshmukh's advocate Aniket Nikam argued the restriction to vote is applicable to those sentenced and custody was not limited as per the law. He stressed on his point that confinement commences after the conviction and not prior to that; hence the voting restriction was not relevant to the former Maharashtra home minister.

Meanwhile, Malik's counsel argued that a person with criminal antecedents can stand for election despite being lodged in jail. He also stated that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader is currently in hospital and not in prison, so he can be granted permission to vote for Friday's Rajya Sabha polls.

Deshmukh was held in November last year in connection with a corruption case levelled against him by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, while Malik was arrested in February this year by the ED in connection with a money laundering case against absconding gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his associates.

The Rajya Sabha polls in Maharashtra on Friday will see a battle between the opposition BJP and the ruling Shiv Sena-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, of which the NCP is a part. The western state will see a contest for six seats with seven candidates being in the fray.

(With agency inputs)