Supreme Court turns down CBI plea opposing bail to Anil Deshmukh

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the bail granted to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Vasantrao Deshmukh in connection with a corruption case

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the bail granted to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Vasantrao Deshmukh in connection with a corruption case.

Former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh (ANI)

He has been accused of extorting money from bar owners and restaurants through police officials.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud was not inclined to entertain the agency’s appeal against the December 12 high court order as Deshmukh is already out on bail in a separate money laundering case, with the same set of allegations.

“In the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case, we have granted him bail. I think we will leave it there,” said the bench, also comprising justices V Ramasubramanian and JB Pardiwala. The top court had on October 11 had dismissed a similar appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader’s bail in the money laundering case.

Appearing for CBI, solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta said, “This is a serious case. There are allegations that police officers working under him used to collect crores of rupees.”

As the bench was not inclined to interfere, Mehta told the Court that the observations made by the high court should not influence the trial. The bench dismissed the CBI’s appeal while stating that the “observations in the impugned order will remain restricted to the aspect of grant of bail alone”.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Deshmukh and referred to the entire proceedings as “short and sweet” as the hearing hardly lasted for a minute.

In its appeal before the top court, the CBI sought to set aside the bail given to the former minister claiming that he continues to hold “high level political connections” and his release will dent the confidence of witnesses and jeopardize trial.

“There is every likelihood that he (Deshmukh) will command his authority by virtue of his high-level political connections. Thus, grant of bail to the accused would be detrimental to the morale of already named witnesses and would be an impediment for prospective witnesses to come forward,” the appeal stated.

CBI alleged that as state home minister, Deshmukh was running an extortion racket within the police force by targeting restaurants and bar owners for money.

These allegations formed part of a letter written by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh who spilled the beans over the illegal activities of Deshmukh in a letter to the then chief minister on March 20, 2021. The former Mumbai top cop even accused Deshmukh of receiving monetary benefits for transfers and posting and for influencing probe in sensitive cases.

On the extortion charges, CBI had completed investigation and filed a charge sheet on June 2. However, investigation into the other two charges of corruption was pending.

The agency claimed that the investigation conducted so far as well as the investigation pending against the remaining charges against the former minister could get jeopardized with the bail order. “Mere release of accused respondent is sufficient enough to dent the confidence of the witnesses or prospective witnesses,” the investigation agency said.

The high court had considered the fact that Deshmukh was “aged 73 years, had no criminal antecedents, and suffered from multiple ailments”. Although the CBI took him into custody on April 6, 2022, he had spent over a year in custody since November 2021 in connection with the ED case.

Balancing interests of CBI, the high court ordered Deshmukh to appear twice a month at the CBI office. He was restrained from leaving the jurisdiction of Greater Mumbai and had to deposit his passport with the court. The high court had suspended its order for a period of 10 days to enable CBI file its appeal.