Anil Deshmukh fails to appear before ED, granted time till next week

The central agency early on Saturday arrested Deshmukh’s personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde after it carried out raids against them and Deshmukh in Mumbai and Nagpur on Friday.

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Saturday failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with the money laundering case registered against him, and has now been granted a new date for appearance early next week.

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh. (File photo)

Meanwhile, in its application seeking remand of Deshmukh’s two aides who were arrested earlier in the day, the agency has alleged that the former minister used a web of “paper” companies to route money collected by a dismissed assistant police inspector from orchestra bar owners across Mumbai and got the amounts transferred as “donations” to a Nagpur-based educational trust controlled by him.

The central agency early on Saturday arrested Deshmukh’s personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde after it carried out raids against them and Deshmukh in Mumbai and Nagpur on Friday.

They were later presented before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, which remanded them to ED custody till July 1.

In its application seeking seven days’ remand of Shinde and Palande, ED said that some Mumbai bar owners/managers informed the agency that dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, who headed the criminal intelligence unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch, held a meeting with them at his office regarding collection of money for “smooth functioning of bars”.

“Subsequently, on behalf of 60 bar owners, Shri Jaya Poojari and Shri Mahesh Shetty, bar owner/manager had paid Rs. 40 lakh to Sachin Waze in December 2020 as “good luck” money,” said the remand application. It added that in January and February 2021, orchestra bar owners from Zone I to Zone VII of Mumbai police paid a sum of ₹1.64 crore to Vaze and orchestra bar owners from Zone VIII to Zone XII paid him ₹2.66 crore during this period.

“Sachin Waze informed the bar owners/managers that the money so collected will go to “No.1”and Crime Branch and Social Service branch of the Mumbai Police,” the application said.

It added that the agency recorded Vaze’s statements twice, on May 19 and May 21 at Taloja jail. In his statements, it said, Vaze reiterated that Deshmukh had called him at his official residence and instructed him to collect ₹3 lakh from every bar and restaurant in the city and was also handed over a list of the establishments.

Vaze, according to the application, also informed ED that he had handed over ₹4.70 crore collected from orchestra bar owners to Kundan Shinde in two instalments, in January and February 2021.

ED claimed that Vaze’s revelations have been “confirmed” by two other Mumbai police officers whose statements are recorded by the agency.

In the course of the investigation, the agency scrutinised accounts of Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha, Nagpur, an educational trust, which runs engineering and polytechnic colleges in Nagpur. Deshmukh heads the trust with his family members and Kundan Shinde as trustees.

“On analysis of bank statement of the trust, it is noticed that there are a number of cheque entries in recent past amounting to approximately ₹4.18 crore, received by the trust from various Delhi-based companies,” stated the application.