Anil Deshmukh case: Bombay HC reserves judgment on state’s petition

Permitting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the two unnumbered paragraphs of its April 21 first information report (FIR) against former home minister Anil Deshmukh would demoralise the entire police force, the state claimed before the Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday

Permitting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the two unnumbered paragraphs of its April 21 first information report (FIR) against former home minister Anil Deshmukh would demoralise the entire police force, the state claimed before the Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday. The HC has reserved its judgment on the petition.

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On Wednesday, a bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar conducted final hearing of the petition filed by the state, seeking removal of the two unnumbered paragraphs from the FIR filed by CBI on April 21 after hearing the petition for more than five days.

Solicitor general of India Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general Anil Singh informed the bench that the state’s claim that as it was probing the Rashmi Shukla case, CBI should not interfere was not valid as the state was not probing the allegations made by Shukla to her superior of the undue political influence in postings and transfers, but only the alleged leaking of her report and phone tapping case.

Mehta submitted that similarly the allegations pertaining to reinstatement of Vaze were also serious and if both the charges went uninvestigated, the CBI would be guilty of non-compliance of the mandate of the April 5 HC order.

On April 5, the HC had directed the CBI to conduct a PE on charges of corruption made by Singh against Deshmukh after hearing the petition of advocate Dr Jaishri Patil. Patil had approached the court as the Malabar Hill police station had failed to take cognizance of her complaint against Deshmukh based on the contents of Singh’s letter to the chief minister.

After concluding the PE, on April 21, the CBI had registered an FIR against Deshmukh and two others and sought documents pertaining to the reinstatement of Vaze and the complaint of Shukla from the state as both issues had been included in the FIR. Aggrieved by the demand by CBI, the state approached the HC seeking removal of the paragraphs which dealt with the two issues on the grounds that the April 5 HC order did not mandate it.

The state government’s counsel, senior advocate Rafiq Dada, had reiterated that it was not against the central agency investigating into the allegations of corruption made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh against Deshmukh in his March 20 letter to the chief minister but by conducting inquiry into the two issues CBI was attempting to mutilate pending investigations in Shukla and Vaze reinstatement matters.

Dada had argued that if CBI was allowed to carry out ‘pillage’ of investigation into transfers and postings being ‘super machinery’ without mandate of the court, same will result in defeating morale of police administration having excellent record and same is irresponsible.

The CBI while responding to the claims had argued that by not cooperating and refusing access to certain documents sought by the agency with regard to the FIR against Deshmukh the state government was in contempt of court and scared of the investigation into two issues that were intrinsically linked to allegations of corruption against Deshmukh.

In response, Dada submitted that Vaze was reinstated by the committee headed by Singh and CBI was trying to help someone by saying that the home minister had knowledge about Vaze’s reinstatement. Dada gad said that Vaze’s reinstatement, Rashmi Shukla’s allegation on transfers and postings were not part of the same transaction as the allegation of extortion from restaurants and even the HC had taken the view.

“We are not only fighting for federal structure, but the morale of police will be down if such pillage is allowed. We are also fighting for the sanctity of our (state) investigations. The CBI cannot by backdoor entry initiate a probe into these issues saying that they are intrinsically connected with FIR. If the CBI is talking about corruption, the state is also fighting it and dealing with Shukla and Vaze matters. Anyone cannot assume that the state does not have power to probe it,” said Dada.

After all arguments were concluded, the CBI continued its earlier statement that it would not seek documents including Shukla’s letter and minutes of the police board meeting from the state. The court reserved its judgement which will be pronounced in due course.