Special Court Sends Maharashtra's Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh To 14 Days Judicial Custody; Son Approaches Court For Anticipatory Bail

A special holiday court on Tuesday refused Maharashtra's former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh's further custody to the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. The court remanded Deshmukh to 14 days judicial custody instead. Meanwhile, Deshmukh's son Hrishikesh has approached the Sessions Court seeking anticipatory bail in the same case. His application is kept for hearing on November 12. Deshmukh, a senior leader of NCP, appeared before the ED on Monday and was arrested after more than 12 hours of questioning. The ED's case is based on the CBI's corruption FIR against Deshmukh wherein Ex-Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh alleged that Deshmukh had asked dismissed cop Sachin Waze and two other officers to illegally collect Rs 100 crore from bar owners every month for him. Special Judge PR Sitre passed the judicial custody order after hearing Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh assisted by Shreeram Shirsat for ED and senior advocate Vikram Chaudhri assisted by advocates Aniket Nikam and Inderpal Singh for Deshmukh. The media was not allowed inside the court.ED sought Deshmukh's custody for 9 days. They submitted that due to the holidays they were unable to procure certain documents, moreover Deshmukh had to be confronted with other accused. His responses were evasive, the agency said. Advocate Chaudhri for Deshmukh opposed the prayer stating that the ED hadn't cited any fresh reasons for seeking Deshmukh's custody even after 5 days of sustained interrogation. The grounds are vague, he argued. The defense cited various judgements to state that police custody over 24 hours can be given only under special circumstances, and the ED had failed to show any such circumstances. According to the ED probe, as Maharashtra's home minister, Deshmukh had received Rs 4.7 crore in illegal gratification in cash from various orchestra bar owners between December 2020 and February 2021 through dismissed cop Sachin Waze. The bribe was used through his son Hrishikesh Deshmukh for providing cash to Delhi based paper companies and was routed to the Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha Trust in the garb of donation. ED claimed in the remand plea that they have approached the Special NIA court to record Waze's statement, as he has key role in collecting the illegal gratification from the bar owners of Mumbai at the direction of Deshmukh. Advocate Chaudhri for Deshmukh opposed the prayer saying that before the Bombay High Court as well the Supreme Court, the agency had said that Anil Deshmukh has not been named as an accused in the case. ED had summoned Hrishikesh Deshmukh on November 5 for recording of his statement; however, he did not appear. Hrishikesh had been summoned 5 times earlier and he has not turned up even once, the agency said in their remand. "Further ED has summoned various family members of Anil Deshmukh who are either director or shareholder in various controlled companies in order to confront them with the facts arisen during the course of recording of statements of Anil Deshmukh," it added. Last Friday, the Bombay High Court had refused relief to quash summons issued by the ED to Deshmukh in connection. In a self-recorded video before his arrest, Deshmukh refuted Singh's allegations against him. While he had come before the agency, Singh(wanted in several cases) was nowhere to be found, he added.

Special Court Sends Maharashtra's Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh To 14 Days Judicial Custody; Son Approaches Court For Anticipatory Bail

Sharmeen Hakim

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