Enforcement Directorate launches probe against Anil Deshmukh in extortion case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has launched an investigation into the extortion charges against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh as part of a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which will also look into the role of former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, the accuser in the case.
Besides Deshmukh and other accused, including dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, the agency is likely to summon Singh and record his statement. Waze, according to the CBI’s preliminary enquiry, was reinstated in service after 15 years with the “knowledge” of Deshmukh and was given important and sensitive cases to probe in the city’s crime branch. Sources said Singh’s conduct as police commissioner was also under the scanner as he had full knowledge of Waze’s activities and was instrumental in the latter’s posting as the virtual head of the city’s criminal investigation unit.
NCP and Congress, the two allies in Maharashtra’s ruling alliance led by Shiv Sena, called the ED’s move vendetta politics meant to cover up the failures of the Modi government.
“Right from Singh’s allegations to the filing of the case by the ED, it is all politically motivated and aimed at defaming him (Deshmukh) by misusing power. It is clear that BJP is playing politics using the CBI, ED and other central agencies,” NCP minister Nawab Malik said.
In a letter to the Maharashtra governor and CM Uddhav Thackeray in the last week of March, which coincided with the revelation about Waze’s alleged role in planting explosives in front of industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai residence, Singh alleged that the then home minister had set a Rs 100 crore target for Waze and other Mumbai cops, to be raised from owners of dance bars and restaurants.