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CBI files case against Anil Deshmukh on corruption charges
The FIR against Deshmukh, who did not respond to repeated calls and text messages for comments, coincided with raids at four places in Mumbai. Deshmukh’s residence was among the places searched.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday booked former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code’s section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) over a month after ex-Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of running an extortion racket. It conducted a preliminary inquiry on the Bombay high court’s directions before registering a First Information Report (FIR) against Deshmukh and “unknown others”.
People familiar with the matter said the FIR was registered for further probe into the allegations after the CBI’s initial inquiry found “prima facie” evidence against Deshmukh, who resigned hours after the high court order on April 5. They added senior officers and the CBI’s legal team reviewed the findings of the inquiry before giving the go-ahead for the FIR.
The FIR against Deshmukh, who did not respond to repeated calls and text messages for comments, coincided with raids at four places in Mumbai. Deshmukh’s residence was among the places searched.
Singh wrote a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in March and alleged Deshmukh had asked suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze to collect ₹100 crore monthly from bars, restaurants, hotels, and other sources in Mumbai. The letter was written after Singh was transferred for allegedly mismanaging the bomb scare outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in February. Vaze has been arrested in connection with the discovery of the explosives-laden car outside the house and the alleged murder of the man, Mansukh Hiran, linked to the vehicle.
Deshmukh, a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government sought to brazen out the issue initially as Singh approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged extortion racket. The top court refused to intervene and said Singh could approach the high court. Deshmukh resigned citing moral grounds after the high court asked the CBI to conduct the preliminary inquiry within 15 days and left it to the discretion of the agency’s director to decide the further course of action.
NCP spokesman and state minister Nawab Malik called the action being taken in the alleged extortion racket case as politically motivated. “...Deshmukh has been cooperating with the investigating agency and will continue to do so in the future too. But the investigation by the Central agency is on allegations levelled by the former police commissioner of Mumbai [Singh] who himself is under the scanner in the Antilia [Ambani residence] explosive case. We firmly believe that the judiciary will do its job and the truth will come to the fore.”
HT this week reported the CBI’s preliminary probe was delayed due to the complex nature of the investigation, the federal agency’s internal mechanism of reviewing a case at various levels, and unforeseen delays due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. The agency did not want to rush its probe though it had recorded the statements of most of the key people.
A CBI team led by police superintendent Abhishek Dular over the last two weeks recorded statements including those of Deshmukh, his two personal assistants, Sanjeev Palande, and Kundan Shinde, and Singh. It scrutinised financial documents, statements of witnesses, and people arrested by the National Investigation Agency during its probes into the bomb scare conspiracy and Mansukh Hiran murder cases.
