Bombay HC grants bail to Anil Deshmukh in ED’s money laundering case

Anil Deshmukh, however, will not come out of the Arthur Road jail, as he is also under arrest in a connected CBI case

The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted bail to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2, 2021, on the allegations of money laundering. The 73-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, however, will not come out of the Arthur Road jail, as he is also under arrest in a connected CBI case.

Anil Deshmukh was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2, 2021, on allegations of money laundering. (HT File Photo)

A single judge bench of justice NJ Jamadar ordered that Deshmukh be released on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and one or two sureties in the same amount. The bench, however, stayed the order till October 13, after ED sought a stay to enable the agency to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the bail order.

ED’s money laundering case against Deshmukh is based on the FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 21, 2021, after former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of trying to extort money from bar owners in Mumbai through some police officials, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Waze, who is arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as prime accused in the Antilia explosives scare and connected murder of Thane based car accessories shop owner Mansukh Hiran.

In a letter written to the then Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others on March 20, 2021, Singh alleged that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including Waze, to collect an amount of ₹100 crore every month from Mumbai’s bar owners.

ED claimed that Waze had accordingly called a meeting of bar owners, and between December 2020 and February 2021, collected ₹4.70 crore from the owners of orchestra bars in Mumbai and handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Deshmukh’s personal assistant Kundan Shinde.

The 73-year-old NCP leader filed a bail application before the Bombay high court on March 22, a week after a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court rejected his bail plea in the money laundering case.