‘There is a contradiction but…’: Mumbai judge rejects Anil Deshmukh bail request

The Mumbai court, which rejected former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s bail request, said there was prima facie evidence against the NCP leader in the money laundering case registered against him

MUMBAI: A special judge in Mumbai on Monday rejected former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s request to be released on bail, observing that there was prima facie evidence against the 72-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in the money laundering case registered against him.

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh sought bail on the ground that there was a clear contradiction in dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze’s statements. (HT Photo)

Judge Rahul Rokade, the designated judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), accepted Deshmukh’s argument that there were contradictions in statements of dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze - he is a prime witness in the case - but underlined that these contradictions cannot be considered for bail at this stage.

This is Anil Deshmikh’s second bail request turned down by the judge in three months.

Deshmukh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2, 2021, in connection with a money laundering case accusing him and his son Hrishikesh among others of laundering crime proceeds.

ED registered the case against Deshmukh on May 11, 2021, on the basis of the April 21 FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. Singh alleged in a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in March last year that Deshmukh instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore every month from Mumbai’s restaurants and bars.

Vaze, who was sacked following his arrest over allegations that he was involved in cases relating to planting explosives outside the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani and the death of a businessman, backed up the former police commissioner.

Sachin Vaze told ED that between December 2020 and February 2021, he collected ₹4.70 crore from the owners of orchestra bars in Mumbai on Deshmukh’s directions and handed over the money to the NCP leader’s personal secretary Kundan Shinde, also arrested in the case.

But Vaze, who is also in judicial custody, told the Justice KU Chandiwal commission in December last year - it was set up by the state government to probe Param Bir Singh’s allegations against Deshmukh - that the allegations of corruption were hearsay. Vaze told the commission during his cross-examination that he had hadn’t made any payments to Deshmukh and that he was never told by Deshmukh’s office to collect any money.

The contradiction in Sachin Vaze’s statements before ED and the judicial commission was the centrepiece of Anil Deshmukh’s fresh bail application.

Deshmukh argued that Vaze’s statements to ED were “unreliable” and he had no creditworthiness whatsoever and that the various statements recorded by the commission make it abundantly clear that the “Number 1” for whom Vaze collected money from bar owners was not the then home minister, but the then Mumbai police commissioner, Singh.

“I am a victim of gross persecution and harassment being meted out at the hands of certain unscrupulous vested interests for blatantly mala fide considerations. The instant case reflects shocking abuse of power and authority by the concerned officials who have virtually unleashed a reign of terror by subverting the process of law,” Deshmukh said in his plea.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh and lawyer Shreeram Shirsat, who represented ED, told the special judge that Deshmukh was the main conspirator and the brain behind the whole conspiracy to collect money from the orchestra bar owners. “Deshmukh is directly involved in the generation and proceeds of crime,” the agency said.