MUMBAI: A special holiday court in Mumbai on Saturday sent former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to 14-day judicial custody in a money laundering case and refused to grant Deshmukh’s additional custody of nine days to the Enforcement Directorate, which the agency had sought.
The ex-minister’s son Hrishikesh Deshmukh approached the court with an anticipatory bail plea in the case filed by the ED. The court has posted the matter for final hearing for November 12, refusing to grant interim relief until then.
The Enforcement Directorate had summoned Hrishikesh for questioning on Friday. The probe agency had arrested Deshmukh on Nov 2 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), almost six months after it first registered a case against him.
The ED found that Deshmukh, while acting as the home minister, “received illegal gratification of approximately Rs 4.7 crore in cash from orchestra bar owners between December 2020 and February 2021. Dismissed Mumbai Police assistant inspector Sachin Waze was the conduit for the money transfer.
The CBI’s FIR came after former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh alleged that Deshmukh had asked police officers, including Waze, to collect Rs 100 crore, including Rs 40-50 crore each month from 1,750 bars and restaurants in Mumbai.