E-Paper
Anil Deshmukh sent to 14-day judicial custody in money laundering case
Former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh was arrested by the central agency, under provisions of PMLA on November 2, after 12 hours of questioning
A special holiday court on Saturday remanded former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in 14-day judicial custody in connection with an alleged money laundering case.
The move came after the court rejected a plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to extend the custody of the 72-year-old National Congress Party (NCP) leader with them by nine more days.
Deshmukh was arrested by the central agency, under provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on November 2, after 12 hours of questioning. A court had remanded him in ED custody till November 6, following which he was sent to Arthur Road jail in south central Mumbai.
Shortly after his medical check-up, the former minister was produced before the court on Saturday -- the last day of his ED custody.
Appearing for the agency, additional solicitor general Anil Singh submitted that a probe into the matter so far revealed that Deshmukh and his family had direct or indirect control over 27 companies, and used them to launder money by creating a complex web of transactions.
The ED’s court application, seeking further custody of the former minister, alleged that money was transferred from bank accounts of Deshmukh’s family to accounts belonging to these companies, and that an amount of ₹9.8 crore was laundered to one these entities – M/s Zodiac Dealcom – through 18 Kolkata-based shell companies.
Singh also pointed out that Deshmukh, who they believed was involved in the money laundering, was not cooperating in the probe and was “evasive during questioning”.
Opposing the probe agency’s plea, defence counsels Vikram Chaudhri and Aniket Nikam said: “The present remand application is a photocopy of the first remand application. The investigation by 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.”
The two lawyers also pointed out that Deshmukh had appeared before the agency to prove his bona fide. The agency has attached some of his assets purchased in 2005 and 2006, alleging that they were purchased while Deshmukh was the home minister, they said.
The ED was stretching its probe “way beyond the scope of the allegations against him”, they added.
The central agency had registered the money-laundering case against Deshmukh on May 11 on the basis of an First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 21 following allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
In a letter 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 restaurants and bars in the state capital.
The probe agency claimed that the money was sent to Delhi-based Jain brothers who reportedly operated bogus companies using hawala channels. The Jain brothers reportedly diverted this money as donations to Nagpur-based Shri Sai Shikshan Sansthan, a trust controlled by the Deshmukh family.
The ED suspects that the Jain brothers were acting on the instructions of Deshmukh’s son, Hrishikesh, who has also been summoned for questioning in the case.
