Minutes after the Bombay High Court granted bail to Maharashtra's former Home Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh in a corruption and abuse of power case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it was put on hold for 10 days as the CBI sought time to challenge it in the Supreme Court.
Deshmukh, 74, had first sought bail when the Bombay High Court granted him bail on October 4 in a money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), but a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) rejected his application. The court stated that the evidence was to indicate that Deshmukh had exercised “undue influence” over transfers and postings of police officers.?
The NCP leader was arrested on November 2, 2021, and has since been in judicial custody. He was admitted to a private hospital in October for coronary angiography.
In March 2021, senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh, the then Home Minister, had given a target to police officers to collect ?100 crore per month from restaurants and bars in Mumbai.
The ED, which is probing the financial aspect of the case, had alleged that while serving as the state home minister, Deshmukh collected ? 4.70 crore from various Mumbai restaurants through police officer Sachin Waze. As per the ED, the money was diverted to Deshmukh’s trust via the hawala route.
Earlier, a special court in Mumbai on November 18 granted bail to dismissed Sachin Waze in the case linked to Deshmukh. Waze, however, did not get out of jail as he is an accused in other cases including the bomb scare incident near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence and the subsequent murder of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran.
Sanjay Raut, senior leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction who was granted bail last month, had claimed he saw Anil Deshmukh in jail, who was not in good health.
The high court had in April 2021 directed the CBI to carry out a preliminary inquiry. The CBI, based on this inquiry, registered a first information report (FIR) against Deshmukh and his associates for alleged corruption and misuse of official power.
Deshmukh had resigned as the Home Minister in April 2021 after the high court ordered a CBI probe into the corruption charges levelled against him by Singh, former Mumbai Police Commissioner.
The NCP leader is yet to file a bail application before the trial court in the CBI case. Advocates Aniket Nikam and Inderpal Singh, representing Deshmukh, said that they would be filing a bail plea in the CBI case by this week.