Anil Deshmukh (Express file photo) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday said it has conducted searches at 12 locations, including Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Sangli and Ahmednagar, in connection with the probe into the alleged corruption case against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.
The CBI raids have come three days before the Supreme Court is due to hear Deshmukh’s petition requesting a fair investigation in the case.
The CBI, sources said, has also searched the premises of a few police officers, including ASP Sanjay Patil and DSP Raju Bhujbal and a few middlemen on July 27, in connection with its case against Deshmukh.
In April, the CBI filed a FIR against Deshmukh and charged him with corruption and bribery after a preliminary enquiry (PE) found that the former state minister had “attempted to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of his public duty”.
The CBI is also probing Deshmukh of exercising “undue influence” over the transfer and posting of police officials as alleged by former Mumbai police commissioner Parambir Singh.
On March 20, Parambir Singh in an eight-page letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleged that Deshmukh had asked now-suspended API Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month, including Rs 40-50 crore, from 1,750 bars and restaurants in Mumbai.
Waze is being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged role in the Ambani house bomb scare and the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.
Deshmukh has also come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that is probing him for alleged money laundering.
The ED probe has found that Anil Deshmukh while acting as the Home Minister of Maharashtra “received illegal gratification of approximately Rs 4.70 crore in cash from various orchestra bar owners” through Waze. According to ED, Deshmukh’s family “laundered the tainted money of Rs 4.18 crore and projected it as untainted by showing the same as amount received in the trust namely Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha”.
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