MUMBAI: A special court here on Friday took cognisance of charge-sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and his two sons in connection with a money laundering case.
Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court judge, RN Rokade, issued process against the accused after taking cognisance of the charge sheet. In December last year, the ED had filed the 7,000-page supplementary charge sheet in connection with the case.
Besides Deshmukh, it had named named his two sons as accused in the case. Prior to that, the probe agency had filed a charge sheet against 14 accused, including Deshmukh's private secretary (an additional collector-rank officer) Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde.
Deshmukh was arrested by the ED on November 1 last year in connection with the case and is currently in judicial custody.
The ED had launched a probe against Deshmukh and his associates after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against the NCP leader on April 21 last year on charges of corruption and misuse of official position.
The ED's case is that while serving as state home minister, Deshmukh allegedly misused his official position and through Sachin Waze, a police officer who has been dismissed from service after his arrest in the 'Antilia' bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran killing cases, collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai.
The money was laundered to Nagpur-based Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha, an educational trust controlled by the Deshmukh family. Both Palande and Shinde had played an important role in circulating and laundering the unaccounted money, the agency has alleged.