Former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh sent to judicial custody till Nov 19

Anil Deshmukh, arrested by ED on November 2 in connection with a money-laundering case against him, was sent to Arthur Road jail in south central Mumbai

A holiday court on Saturday rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea for extension of custody of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, and remanded the 72-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader to 14 days judicial custody till November 19. Deshmukh, arrested by ED on November 2 in connection with a money-laundering case against him, was sent to Arthur Road jail in south central Mumbai.

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh was produced before a special holiday court on Saturday. The agency sought extension of his custody for confronting him along with some other persons, including his son Hrishikesh. (HT FILE)

Shortly after his medical check-up at the state-run JJ Hospital, Deshmukh was produced before a special holiday court on Saturday, the day his ED custody ended. The agency sought extension of his custody for confronting the NCP leader along with some other persons, including his son Hrishikesh, summoned for questioning in connection with the case.

Appearing for the agency, additional solicitor general Anil Singh submitted that the probe so far has revealed that Deshmukh and his family was directly or indirectly controlled 27 companies and used these entities to launder money by creating a complex web of transactions.

ED’s application seeking extension of Deshmukh’s remand stated that the money has flown from personal accounts of Deshmukh family members to these companies and an amount of Rs. 9.8 crore was laundered to one of these entities – M/s Zodiac Dealcom – through 18 Kolkata-based shell companies.

Singh added that Deshmukh himself was involved in the money-laundering, but he has been giving evasive answers to the questions put to him by the investigators and sought extension of his custody to find out the entire money trail.

Deshmukh’s counsels Vikram Chaudhri and Aniket Nikam opposed the plea. “The present remand application is a photocopy of the first remand application,” they said. “The investigations of the agency seems to not have progressed at all, the same grounds are shown to seek further custody of Deshmukh. Besides, the grounds are vague.”

They also pointed out that Deshmukh had appeared before the agency to prove his bona fides and that the agency has attached some of Deshmukh’s assets purchased in 2005 and 2006, claiming that those were bought while he was the home minister and that the ED was stretching its probe “way beyond the scope of the allegations against him.”

ED had registered the money-laundering case against Deshmukh on May 11 this year on the basis of an April 21 First Information Report (FIR) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which in turn was based on allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

In a letter written to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on March 20, Singh alleged that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers to collect an amount of ₹100 crore every month from Mumbai’s restaurants and bars.

ED’s lawyers pointed out that the agency’s probe revealed that, on Deshmukh’s instructions, Sachin Vaze – an assistant police inspector in Mumbai – had called a meeting of bar owners, and that, between December 2020 and February 2021 collected ₹4.7 crore from the owners of so-called orchestra bars in Mumbai to avoid police interference. In his statement to ED, Vaze reportedly revealed that he handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Deshmukh’s aide Kundan Shinde.

Subsequently, they said, Deshmukh’s son Hrishikesh received an amount of ₹4.18 crore routed through Delhi-based shell entities as donations to a Deshmukh-led charitable trust, Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha, Nagpur.

On June 26, ED had arrested Shinde and Deshmukh’s personal secretary Sanjeev Palande in the money laundering case, and on August 23, filed a charge sheet against them. Vaze is also an accused in the charge sheet.

In July 2021, ED has provisionally attached Deshmukh’s properties worth ₹4.2 crore, which included the NCP leader’s residential flat at Worli, valued at ₹ 1.54 crore, and 25 land parcels worth ₹2.67 crore, at Dhutum village in neighbouring Raigad district,” said an ED officer.

The properties were held in name Deshmukh’s wife Aarti and a company named Premier Port Links Pvt Ltd. ED officers said Deshmukh family had acquired 50% ownership in this company, including its assets i.e. land and shops valued at approximately ₹5.34 crore by paying just ₹17.95 lakh.