Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday filed for bail in a money laundering case against him.
Mr. Deshmukh (71), currently lodged in the Arthur Road Jail, filed for statutory bail on the grounds that no cognizance of the charge sheet by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was taken by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court.
The plea filed by advocate Aniket Nikam states, “Mr Deshmukh is incarcerated since November 2, when he was remanded to custody. Excluding the date of first remand, a period of 60 days has since elapsed. As he is offering to accept his bail bonds, there is an embargo in continuing his further remand as per of the Code of Criminal Procedure.”
“That in a surreptitious manner without disclosing to this court that the statutory period of 60 days shall expire on January 1, 2022 and the ED obtained remand from court till January 9, 2022 when the matter was listed before court on December 27, 2021. Mr. Deshmukh’s custody is bad in law and the right to statutory bail arises only after completing 60 days,” the plea mentions.
He was arrested by the ED on November 1 after being questioned for 12 hours. He was sent in its custody till November 6.
On December 29, the ED filed a supplementary charge sheet against him and his two sons.
Param Bir Singh’s letter
The case dates back to March 20, 2021, when former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Mr. Deshmukh abused his position and power to seek illegal monetary benefits.
The letter alleged instances of Mr. Deshmukh directing suspended police officer Sachin Vaze and others to collect ₹100 crore over a month from bars and restaurants.
Soon thereafter, the High Court directed a preliminary CBI inquiry against Mr. Deshmukh. The ED then stepped in and started conducting a probe into allegations of money laundering against Mr. Deshmukh.
On April 21, an FIR was registered against him under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
As per the ED’s probe, 11 companies were directly controlled by his family members and another 13 companies were in the names of close associates of his family. Bank account statements showed that money was flowing from the companies indirectly controlled by Mr. Deshmukh’s family members to companies directly controlled by his kin.
