Maharashtra : Anil Deshmukh reaches SC, seeks stay on punitive action in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and his son in the money laundering case against them, asking them to appear before the probe agency on Monday. Meanwhile, Deshmukh has filed an application in the Supreme Court (SC) seeking a stay on punitive action in the money laundering case. Deshmukh has so far deferred summons to appear before the ED twice.

This is the third notice issued to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Deshmukh to appear before the investigating officer of the case, ED officials said on Saturday. Deshmukh has been asked to record his statement on Monday at the central agency’s office in south Mumbai. His son Hrishikesh Deshmukh has also been summoned and summoned on July 6.

The agency had alleged in a court document that Rishikesh used to oversee the hawala transactions. Deshmukh (72) has been issued two summons earlier also, but he did not appear citing the threat of corona infection and urged him to record his statement before the ED through video conference.

Deshmukh has been summoned by the ED in connection with a money laundering case related to a gang that allegedly took bribes and extortion of Rs 100 crore. Deshmukh had resigned from the post of Home Minister of Maharashtra in April this year due to these allegations.

The ED had last month raided the premises of Deshmukh, his associates and others in Mumbai and Nagpur, following which the directorate had issued the first summons. Later, the agency arrested two of his associates – his personal secretary Sanjeev Palande (51) and personal assistant Kundan Shinde (45). He is in ED custody till July 6.

Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh had accused Deshmukh of receiving a bribe of at least Rs 100 crore, on the basis of which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a corruption case against him. After this, the ED registered a case against Deshmukh and others.

Singh had written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Deshmukh had asked suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Waje of Mumbai Police to collect more than Rs 100 crore in a month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. Deshmukh, in a letter sent to the agency through his lawyers, had said that the agency had already recorded his statement during several hours of conversation with the ED investigators at the time of raids on his premises here on June 25.