NEW DELHI: In a huge relief for former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Enforcement Directorate's plea challenging the bail granted to him by the Bombay HC in a money laundering case.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli, in their order, observed, “since the observations in the impugned order of the High Court are confined to the question of whether the respondent could be granted bail, we clarify that these observations in itself will not affect the merit of the trial or other collateral proceedings. We are not inclined to entertain the SLP (Special Leave Petition) against the bail order.”
Assailing the HC’s order, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended that the lower court had conducted a “mini-trial” and had discussed evidence selectively which resulted in perverse findings. It was also his contention that the health grounds on which bail was sought were lifestyle diseases and not hazardous ones. It was also his contention that the money which was collected in the form of bribes from bar hotels eventually went to an organisation of which Deshmukh was the Chairman and that the transaction happened through shell companies. He also added that there were statements of witnesses corroborating these transactions.
Appearing for Deshmukh, senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued that other co-accused were on bail and there was no evidence on record related to the link of money laundering.
“The trial has to be shown and there is no trial. You just have Waze’s statement who has turned into an approver. Waze is being protected by them to implicate the home minister. The racket was being run by Waze and the commissioner of police,” Sibal added.
While granting him bail, the HC had directed Deshmukh to pay Rs 1 lakh as bail bond. To enable ED to file an appeal, the bench had however stayed the implementation of its bail order till October 12. This meant that Deshmukh would continue to remain in judicial custody in Arthur Road prison since he is also being investigated by the CBI in a corruption case.
HC on October 4 had observed that "two components of credits" in the account of his family trust were not "proceeds of crime”. The bench had also considered Deshmukh’s age and the fact that he had no criminal antecedents.
On September 26, SC bench led by Justices DY Chandrachud had directed the Bombay HC to consider and dispose of Maharashtra’s former minister Anil Deshmukh’s plea seeking bail in money laundering case being investigated by the ED. Noting that Deshmukh’s bail application is listed before Justice NJ Jamadar of the Bombay HC, a SC granted him the liberty to mention his application before a single judge.
Deshmukh who was arrested in November 2021 by the Enforcement Directorate in a case of money laundering has been in judicial custody since then.