Special court merely copy-pasted material from CBI charge-sheet: Anil Deshmukh to HC

 

 

Mumbai: former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh told the Bombay high court (HC) that the special CBI court had done a “copy and paste” job from the chargesheet filed by the central agency against him while rejecting his bail plea

Mumbai: former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh told the Bombay high court (HC) that the special CBI court had done a “copy and paste” job from the chargesheet filed by the central agency against him while rejecting his bail plea.

The 73-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader moved the HC to seek bail after the special CBI court denied bail to the jailed leader on October 21.

Relying on a HC order dated October 4, which granted bail to him in the money-laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Deshmukh contended that Vaze was an accomplice in the crime and cannot be trusted.

“It is disquieting to note that the trial court has virtually indulged in a cut-copy-paste job while denying bail to the applicant. Specific paragraphs occurring in the order which are in the form of the observations/findings of the court are in fact a verbatim copy of the contents of the charge-sheet filed by the CBI,” Deshmukh’s plea filed through advocates Inderpal Singh and Aniket Nikam, stated.

The lawyers mentioned the bail plea for urgent hearing before the vacation bench of the HC on Wednesday after which the court asked the CBI to file a reply. The plea will come up for hearing soon after the Diwali vacation, which ends on November 6.

The special CBI court rejected Deshmukh’s bail plea in the case registered by the CBI, observing that the confessional statement given by Vaze was “well corroborated and established.”

“Prima facie it is established that Vaze was used by applicant Anil Deshmukh and others for collection of bribe money from bar owners,” the special court had said in its order, rejecting Deshmukh’s bail plea. “After perusal of statements of witnesses, it appears that the CBI has established that there was a meeting of Vaze (approver) with applicant Anil Deshmukh and accused No 2 Sanjeev Palande. The factum of demand and collection of money from bar owners/establishments is well corroborated and established.”

Vaze, who is also in the crosshairs of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Antilia explosives scare and connected murder of Thane-based trader Mansukh Hiran, turned approver against Deshmukh in the CBI case.

Deshmukh was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2, 2021, on the allegations of money laundering. ED’s case, registered on May 11, 2021 against the NCP leader was based on the FIR registered by the CBI on April 21, 2021, after former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of using some Mumbai police officers, including Vaze, to extort money from bar owners in Mumbai.

The agency claimed that Vaze had on Deshmukh’s instructions called a meeting of bar owners, and between December 2020 and February 2021, collected ₹4.7 crore from the owners of orchestra bars in Mumbai and handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Deshmukh’s personal assistant Kundan Shinde.