new Delhi: Two courts in Mumbai on Friday allowed the CBI custody of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, his two aides and sacked police officer Sachin Waje to probe a corruption case.
NCP leader Deshmukh (71) and his aides Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde are currently in judicial custody in a money laundering case. He is lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.
Deshmukh’s bail application was rejected by the PMLA court in March. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 1 last year.
The CBI has filed an application for his custody before Additional Sessions Judge DP Singhade.
On Thursday, Judge Singhade issued a letter of request to the special PMLA court hearing ED cases to transfer Deshmukh and the other two to CBI custody.
Sachin Waje was also taken into custody by the CBI. The National Investigation Agency arrested Vaze in March 2021 in the Antilia bomb scare-Mansukh deer killings. Judge DP Singhade had also sent a similar request letter to the special NIA court.
Vaze is currently in judicial custody at Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai.
The special PMLA and NIA courts had on Friday ordered the superintendents of the respective jails to hand over the custody of the four accused – Deshmukh, Palande, Shinde and Vaze – to the CBI in separate orders.
The ED had registered a money laundering case against Deshmukh after former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh made allegations of corruption.
In his letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after he was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner, Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had extorted over Rs 100 crore in a month from Sachin Vaze from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. was asked to
Deshmukh denied the allegations but resigned from his post after the Bombay High Court directed the CBI to register a case against him.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Maharashtra government’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court order dismissing a petition from the SIT to probe the corruption case against Deshmukh.