The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, his personal assistant Kundan Shinde and personal secretary Sanjeev Palande in connection with a corruption case.
The charge sheet will be checked by the sessions court registry after which it will be submitted before the special CBI judge.
Deshmukh, who was arrested in November last year, and his two aides are lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
During preliminary enquiry, it was revealed the accused and others allegedly attempted to “obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of their public duties”, CBI said in a press note.
It was also alleged the said accused and others “exercised undue influence over the transfers, postings of police officers”, said the press note. Further investigation was continuing in the case, CBI added.
On April 21, last year, CBI registered a first information report (FIR) against the 71-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and others, on the basis of allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
In a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others on March 20, 2021, the former top cop claimed that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore every month from restaurants and bars in the city. Deshmukh denied the allegations but had to step down from his post after the Bombay high court directed CBI to register a case against him.
{{/usCountry}}In a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others on March 20, 2021, the former top cop claimed that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore every month from restaurants and bars in the city. Deshmukh denied the allegations but had to step down from his post after the Bombay high court directed CBI to register a case against him.
{{/usCountry}}Vaze is the prime accused in the Antilia explosives scare and the subsequent murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran. Vaze, who was made an approver in the case on Wednesday, has not been named in the charge sheet.
After starting a probe into the money-laundering aspect of the corruption case, ED filed a charge sheet against Shinde and Palande on August 23, 2021, and also named Vaze as an accused, claiming the dismissed police officer had played an active role in the purported extortion racket.
Deshmukh was arrested by ED on November 2 and a 7,000-page charge sheet was filed against him on December 29.
CBI on April 2, this year, arrested Shinde, Palande and Vaze. Two days later, Deshmukh was also arrested by the central agency.