CBI files charge sheet against Deshmukh in corruption case
Manish K Pathak
MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, his personal assistant Kundan Shinde and his secretary Sanjeev Palande in a corruption case.
It will be checked by the sessions court registry after which the charge sheet will be submitted before the special CBI judge.
Deshmukh, who was arrested in November last year, and his two aides are lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
During preliminary enquiry, it was revealed the accused and others allegedly attempted to “obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of their public duties”, CBI said in a press note.
It was also alleged the said accused and others “exercised undue influence over the transfers, postings of police officers”, said the press note. Further investigation was continuing in the case, CBI added.
On April 21, last year, CBI registered an FIR against the 71-year-old NCP leader and others, on the basis of allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner
Param Bir Singh.
In a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in March last year, Singh claimed that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore every month from restaurants and bars in the city. Deshmukh denied the allegations but had to step down from his post after the Bombay high court directed CBI to register a case.
Vaze, who is an approver in the case, has not been named in the charge sheet. After starting a probe into the money-laundering aspect of the corruption case, ED arrested Deshmukh on November 2 and filed a charge sheet on December 29. CBI on April 2 arrested Shinde, Palande and Vaze. Two days later, it also arrested Deshmukh.