Mumbai: A special PMLA Court on Tuesday granted bail to former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh's elder son Salil Deshmukh, in the money laundering case involving his father, Sachin Waze and others.
The case was being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate(ED). Salil had appeared before the court after summons were issued to him. He had not been arrested in the case yet, but had applied for bail after a chargesheet was filed against him.
Pre-arrest bail
After appearing before the court on Tuesday, Salil Deshmukh filed an application through his advocate Aniket Nikam requesting the court to accept his appearance and grant him bail.
The court accepted this application and granted bail.
The application said the accusations levelled against Salil Deshmukh were "absolutely unfounded".
It further said that Salil Deshmukh was never arrested by the ED in the case to date and that he has cooperated in the investigation.
The ED opposed Salil Deshmukh's plea saying he had been summoned by the anti-money laundering agency twice but he never appeared. The ED also stated that though Salil Deshmukh had been summoned by the court in February he appeared only now.
"He has no respect for the agency, no respect for the court and so the application may be rejected," the agency said.
In the application, Salil Deshmukh said while the scheduled offence remained confined to the alleged acts of omission and commission of his father as the then Home Minister, the present PMLA case has spread it tentacles beyond the precincts of the scheduled offence and certain accusations which have no relation to any schedule offence have been levelled against him.
"The accusations against the Applicant are not attributable to any criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence and thus dehors the nature of these transactions, the same cannot come with the fold of proceeds of crime and consequential money laundering," it said.
Anil Deshmukh granted bail earlier in the month
The application also stated that Anil Deshmukh has been granted bail in the case by the Bombay High Court earlier this month.
"The high court in its order had clearly stated that none of the properties or assets (mentioned in the ED complaint) was derived or obtained from proceeds of crime," it added.
Salil Deshmukh is neither named in the scheduled/predicate offence nor has any role to play in any act of omission or commission that may have been attributed to his father, the application said.
It further said that Salil Deshmukh has no criminal antecedents and comes from a respectable family and hence is not a flight risk.
The ED began its probe against Anil Deshmukh after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against him over allegations of extortion made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The ED claimed Anil Deshmukh had misused his official position and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars and restaurants in Mumbai.
The money was channelled to a Nagpur-based educational trust controlled by the Deshmukh family, according to the ED.
While Anil Deshmukh has been granted bail in this case, he continues to remain in jail in the case lodged against him by the CBI on corruption charges.
Anil Deshmukh's two sons were first summoned on Feb 4
On February 4th a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had summoned former state home minister Anil Deshmukh’s sons Hrishikesh Deshmukh and Salil Deshmukh in the money laundering case in which they are accused along with their father.
The court had taken cognizance of the chargesheet of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Jan 28 and passed an order to issue summons. The order had however not mentioned when they were to appear before it. On Feb 4, the court was informed of the same and it summoned them on Apr 5.
The ED was to give its response to the bail application filed by Anil Deshmukh through his advocates Inderpal Singh and Aniket Nikam. The agency sought time for the same and was asked to file its response on Feb 9.
Bribe from bar owners
The summons is issued after the court takes cognizance of the chargesheet and decides to proceed against the accused. In its detailed order taking cognizance of the alleged offences, the court had said regarding the younger son Hrishikesh, that with the help of New Delhi-based paper companies, he had assisted his father to launder Rs 1.71 crore in February and March, 2020. This money was purportedly the bribe collected from orchestra bar owners and was shown as accounted for. It also called him an “active participant” in laundering the proceeds of crime.
On Salil, the court had said he was directly involved in the offence of money laundering and had assisted his father and brother in it.
(With inputs from PTI)
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