NEW DELHI: Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s plea seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him by the CBI in the corruption case, was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Observing that there is no error in the judgment of the high court, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah dismissed Deshmukh’s appeal against July 22 order of the Bombay High Court saying ‘no case for interference with the high court verdict is made out’.
On July 22, the High Court had refused to quash an FIR registered against Deshmukh by the CBI, saying the central agency’s probe was ongoing and any interference by the court at this stage was uncalled for.
During the hearing, senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Deshmukh said that in the complaint of advocate Jaishri Patil, various allegations were made and the High Court has read into the things, which were never averred. The bench told Desai that he cannot say that investigation is invalid when it has been ordered by a constitutional court.
“If the CBI investigates a person on the direction of the court, can the government of India or state government say that you cannot investigate my officer. If this argument is accepted then the entire purpose of directions by the top court gets defeated,” the bench said.
Justice Chandrachud said that there are certain categories of cases especially if the person is holding a high office, where the apex court in its verdict observed that there should be preliminary enquiry so that he is not targeted unnecessarily.
“In this case also the High Court did not straight away order the CBI to lodged a FIR but directed that preliminary enquiry be conducted. This was not case where murder was committed and court directed for probe,” the bench said.