Delhi court orders probe against former Maharashtra home minister Deshmukh

On December 22, special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal took cognisance of a charge sheet filed against Deshmukh’s lawyer Anil Daga and CBI sub-inspector Abhishek Tiwari over alleged bribery related to a leak

A Delhi court has ordered a probe against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in connection with the leak of confidential information related to the investigation into an extortion case involving him. The court said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had “forsaken the man pulling the string” while only booking the “hands”.

A recent photo of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in Mumbai. (ANI/ File)

On December 22, special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal took cognisance of the charge sheet filed against Deshmukh’s lawyer Anil Daga and CBI sub-inspector Abhishek Tiwari over alleged bribery related to the leak. It directed the CBI to “discreetly” conduct an investigation into Deshmukh’s role.

The CBI arrested Daga and Tiwari on September 1 alleging a criminal conspiracy involving them and unknown persons to subvert the probe in the extortion case against Deshmukh.

The Enforcement Directorate arrested Deshmukh in November in a money-laundering case linked to alleged extortion. The CBI earlier booked him in connection with the allegations of bribery that former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh levelled against the politician. The agency has alleged Tiwari shared sensitive and confidential documents with Daga in lieu of “undue advantage and illegal gratification” for sabotaging the probe in the extortion case. It said Daga was allegedly involved in the “manipulation” of the CBI’s preliminary inquiry against Deshmukh.

On August 29, a report that was part of the preliminary inquiry the CBI conducted into Singh’s allegation of corruption against Deshmukh was leaked in the media. The report said the agency concluded that Deshmukh committed “no cognisable offence”. The CBI later said it found Deshmukh’s legal team tried to bribe some CBI officials and leaked the report as part of a “larger conspiracy to subvert the investigation”.

The Delhi court pulled up the agency for not investigating Deshmukh’s role. “The CBI seems to have left the engine/horse pulling the cart, thereby only arraigning those traveling in cart, as without pull of engine or horse the ride of cart or conspiracy would not have been possible, despite mountain of apparent evidence, CBI seems to have forsaken the man pulling the strings or the controlling mind or master mind or head while only charge sheeting the hands,” said Aggarwal. He noted the two accused were closely associated with Deshmukh. Aggarwal said they may have been acting in tandem with him and “controlling the mind of the larger conspiracy, whereas those arrested may only be the hands”.

The court said Deshmukh was the main beneficiary of the leak and the common objective of the conspiracy appears to be to get access investigation done in an illegal and clandestine manner and thereafter to use and circulate it. It referred to a series of conspiratorial acts to obtain the information. The court directed the agency to investigate Deshmukh’s role in a time-bound manner and file a status report within four weeks.

The matter would be heard next on January 22.