Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s staff was on Sunday questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with corruption allegations levelled against him by ex-Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The members of Deshmukh's staff who have been questioned by the federal investigation agency are his personal assistants (PAs) Palande and Kundan.
Param Bir Singh alleged in a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray that Anil Deshmukh told Sachin Vaze, Mumbai Police officer arrested in Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case, to collect ₹100 crore a month from restaurants and bars in Mumbai. The former home minister has denied the allegations. He resigned on April 5, hours after the Bombay high court ordered a federal probe into allegations against him.
The Maharashtra government and Anil Deshmukh filed a plea against a CBI probe in the Supreme Court, which was dismissed by the top court saying the allegations against the former minister are serious and require a CBI probe.
The CBI team, which is in Mumbai to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the allegations as directed by the Bombay high court, on Friday also recorded the statements of a bar owner and Sachin Vaze. The officials of the central agency visited the office of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to record Vaze’s statement the third day in a row, following which Vaze was sent to judicial custody by the special NIA court.
{{/usCountry}}The CBI team, which is in Mumbai to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the allegations as directed by the Bombay high court, on Friday also recorded the statements of a bar owner and Sachin Vaze. The officials of the central agency visited the office of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to record Vaze’s statement the third day in a row, following which Vaze was sent to judicial custody by the special NIA court.
{{/usCountry}}“The owner of a bar and restaurant in Kandivali area was questioned twice by the NIA and his detailed statements were recorded when the agency learnt that he was allegedly collecting monthly collection (money) from other restaurant owners on behalf of a former police officer,” a senior NIA official told HT.
“[The bar owner’s] statement was recorded to corroborate the allegation made by Singh,” a CBI official said, refusing to elaborate. The agency we will also record statements of other bar owners to verify the facts, an official said.
The federal agency also recorded Param Bir Singh’s statement on April 8, a day after Sachin Vaze tried to submit a letter to the special court in which he stated that Anil Deshmukh and state transport minister Anil Parab had asked him to extort money from businessmen and establishments.
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