Bombay High Court Seeks ED Response On Anil Deshmukh's Plea To Defer Framing Of Charges In Money Laundering Case

The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and also the Maharashtra Government to file their affidavits in response to a plea filed by former State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who has sought a temporary stay on the framing of charges in the money laundering case lodged against him.Deshmukh, who petitioned a single-judge bench of Justice Ashwin Bhobe has urged the court to issue a directive to a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to first consider dealing with the case lodged against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on allegations of corruption, which is the 'predicate offence.'On Monday, when the matter was called out, senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary appeared for Deshmukh virtually, and apprised the court of the basic facts. However, the judge noted that since both the ED and the State counsel had appeared before him, there was no need to issue a notice and therefore, the respondent authorities were asked to file in their affidavit-in-reply to Deshmukh's plea by March 5.In his plea through advocate Inderpal Singh, the former State Home Minister has challenged an order passed on November 11, 2025 by a Special PMLA Court, which rejected his plea seeking to defer the framing of charges in the money laundering case lodged against him by the ED. Deshmukh contended that since the ED case is premised on the predicate offence lodged by the CBI, the special court ought to first consider dealing with the CBI case and then proceed with the ED case against him. However, the special court rejected his application for the same. Therefore, Deshmukh moved the High Court. Notably, Deshmukh was booked by the CBI after the High Court on April 5, 2021 ordered a 'preliminary enquiry' into a letter written by Parambir Singh, the former Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, accusing the senior NCP leader of ordering then dismissed cop Sachin Waze and two other officers to illegally collect Rs 100 crore from bar owners every month for him. The order was passed on a batch of petitions.Subsequently, CBI registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The ED's case was based on the CBI's corruption FIR against Deshmukh.According to the ED probe, as Maharashtra's Home Minister, Deshmukh had received at least Rs 4.7 crore in illegal gratification in cash from various orchestra bar owners between December 2020 and February 2021 through then dismissed cop Waze.Deshmukh was arrested by the ED on November 2, 2021 and booked under section 3 and 4 of the PMLA Act, which was based on the corruption case against him lodged by the CBI.On October 4, 2022, the Bombay HC had granted bail to Deshmukh in the PMLA case being probed by the ED and subsequently, on December 12, 2022, he was bailed out in the corruption FIR lodged by the CBI.

Bombay High Court Seeks ED Response On Anil Deshmukh's Plea To Defer Framing Of Charges In Money Laundering Case

Narsi Benwal

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