- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE enforcement directorate on Friday (25) raided the premises of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in Mumbai and Nagpur as part of a money-laundering probe against him, officials said. The directorate also questioned Deshmukh’s personal secretary Sanjeev Palande related to the case. Sources said Palande was brought to the directorate’s office on Friday afternoon for quizzing.
“In the afternoon, Palande was brought to the ED office for questioning. The agency had recorded the statement Mumbai DCP Raju Bhujbal on Thursday,” they said, adding that the statements of a few bar owners have also been recorded. Searches were also conducted at Palande’s premises in Mumbai.
Directorate officials said the raids were being made under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It was though not known whether Deshmukh, 71, was available at the premises during the searches.
The central agency had registered a criminal case under the anti-money laundering law against the Nationalist Congress Party leader and others last month after studying a Central Bureau of Investigation FIR.
The directorate case after the Central Bureau of Investigation first conducted a preliminary enquiry, followed by filing a regular case on the orders of the Bombay High Court that asked it to look into the allegations of bribery brought against Deshmukh by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The agency’s probe focuses on the allegation that illicit money was generated in the transfer, posting of police personnel in Maharashtra and if illegal extortion was done by the police as claimed by Singh in his complaint.
The ED is empowered to attach assets of the accused during the investigation stage and later file charge sheets against them before a PMLA court for trial.
Singh was shifted from the prime post after the role of former policeman Sachin Waze came out during the investigation into the explosives-laden SUV case. The vehicle was found parked outside Antilia, the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai.
Former Mumbai top cop wrote to chief minister Thackeray
Singh had written a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray following his removal from the plum post. In it, he alleged that Deshmukh had asked Waze to extort over Rs 100 crore ($13.4 million) a month from Mumbai’s bars and restaurants.
Deshmukh, who served as Maharashtra’s home minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Shiv Sena’s Thackeray, resigned in April after the allegations were brought against him.
The Central Bureau of Investigation booked Deshmukh and others under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and section of Prevention of Corruption Act for “attempt to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of public duty”.
“The preliminary enquiry prima facie revealed that a cognisable offence is made out in the matter, wherein the then home minister of Maharashtra, Shri Anil Deshmukh and unknown others have attempted to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of their public duty,” the CBI FIR had said.
After registering the FIR in end April, the CBI had also raided premises in Mumbai and Nagpur that are linked to Deshmukh, who had stepped down by then.
