ED: Anil Deshmukh, family laundered unaccounted income of Rs 29.83 crore

The court on Friday took cognisance of the supplementary chargesheet.

The ED has alleged that Deshmukh, along with his wife Aarti, sons Hrishikesh and Salil, and daughter-in-law Ridhee Deshmukh, have together declared income of only Rs 6.53 crore in their income tax returns between 2009 and 2020. The agency said the Deshmukhs have acted as a “unit” and even though they did not have “sufficient income” as per their tax returns, they have set up a “formidable empire”.

The central agency has alleged that the Deshmukhs used “unaccounted money” to set up several businesses such as warehousing, hotel and restaurant, colleges and a trust through “dummy directors”.

According to the ED, of the Rs 29.83 crore unaccounted income, Rs 9.82 crore was routed to various projects such as construction of three colleges run by Anil Deshmukh’s Shri Sai Shikshan Sansthan Trust, a warehouse and acquiring a restaurant.

The agency has also alleged that another Rs 13.25 crore was routed to Sai Shikshan Sansthan for its day-to-today needs and Rs 2.12 crore was used to buy a piece of land at Worli in Mumbai — owned by Premier Port Links Private Limited, a company where the Deshmukhs have a stake.

The ED has alleged that a part of Deshmukh’s unaccounted money has also been routed to a Nagpur-based hotel, Travotel Suites, which has been operational since 2015-16. The probe has found that Hrishikesh had “diverted” funds for acquiring the land where the hotel has been built. Apart from this, the hotel runs a restaurant called Mocha Sky and the central agency has alleged that the profit from the restaurant business is deposited with Hrishikesh in cash.

Further, the ED has alleged that Deshmukh used his influence as the home minister to “bring his family members” at official meetings “to monitor the progress and implementation of several government projects”.

It has found that Deshmukh used his influence to relocate a project for establishing emergency services in Nagpur — called the Dial 112 project — to his constituency at Katol. “Further, Anil Deshmukh has asked Shri Satyajeet Deshmukh, his distant cousin, to monitor the progress of the project,” the ED claimed in its chargesheet.

Anil Deshmukh was arrested on November 2, last year, by the ED. The agency had claimed that Deshmukh was the primary beneficiary of money laundering of the bribe money allegedly collected by dismissed Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze, who was named as an accused in the previous chargesheet.