ED probe into Anil Deshmukh’s financial transactions is in line with the CBI probe into former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations of corruption against the NCP leader. (FIle) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday opposed and sought dismissal of a plea by former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s private secretary Sanjeev Palande, seeking to quash money laundering and corruption case against him lodged by the Central agency.
Palande and Deshmukh’s personal assistant (PA) Kundan Shinde were arrested by the ED in June after the agency conducted searches at the residence of Deshmukh in Nagpur.
The ED probe had claimed that Deshmukh, while in office as the home minister of Maharashtra, “received illegal gratification of approximately Rs 4.7 crore in cash from various orchestra bar owners” between December 2020 and February 2021 through now-dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze.
According to the ED, Deshmukh’s family “laundered the tainted sum of Rs 4.18 crore and projected it as untainted by showing the same amount as received by the trust, namely Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha”.
ED probe into Deshmukh’s financial transactions is in line with the CBI probe into former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations of corruption against the NCP leader. The CBI initiated a preliminary probe based on the April 5 HC order and had registered FIR on April 21.
Tassine Sultan, Assistant Director of ED, on Friday filed an affidavit in HC against Palande’s petition, which sought to set aside the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).
The agency claimed that Palande, in his statement, had said that a list containing the references with regards to transfers and postings of the police officers of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) rank and above along with names of concerned MLAs and MLCs who had given reference used to be received at Home Minister’s office.
“The petitioner further said the list used to be unofficial in nature and no record used to be maintained at the Home Minister’s office in this regard. As per ED, Palande also stated that he used to forward the list of officials to Police Establishment Board (PEB) as per directions of Deshmukh, while having knowledge that there are no such guidelines laid down by the state government for preparing and forwarding of such a list,” the affidavit stated.
The ED said that the petitioner was rightly arrested based on the material in his possession as per section 19 of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act). “He is not entitled to any relief, interim or final, and his contentions are wrong and denied, therefore petition be dismissed with costs,” the agency sought from the court.
A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal is likely to hear Palande’s plea on December 14.
On October 29, the HC had rejected Deshmukh’s plea seeking quashing of summons by ED, asking him to appear before it in connection with the money laundering case. The ED arrested Deshmukh on November 2 after questioning him for over 12 hours at its office.
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