The travails of a former home minister

Two central investigation agencies, one state probe, and a letter with explosive allegations written by a top cop: Anil Deshmukh has been at the centre of a political storm for months. Here’s why

MUMBAI: When the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Anil Deshmukh for the fourth time last week, the 71-year-old former home minister of Maharashtra sent a letter to their Ballad Pier office instead.

“I am more than eager to associate with the purported enquiry/investigations being carried out by your office so as to lay bare the hollowness, falsity and lack of substance therein,” his letter, sent through his legal representative, read.

He went on: “lt appears that the summons has been issued solely with an aim to create a prejudice so as to either serve the media or sensationalise the matter before the (Supreme) Court by alleging purported noncompliance thereof by me.”

“The matter before the court” which Deshmukh referred to, was the petition that he had filed on July 5, seeking a stay on his arrest by the ED, which has been probing allegations of corruption raised by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

According to the ED, there was merit to Singh’s allegation that Deshmukh ran an extortion ring. As per a remand application filed by the anti-laundering investigation agency, Deshmukh used paper companies to route money collected from Mumbai bar owners as donations to an educational trust.

The court had posted the hearing of Deshmukh’s petition to August 3, but the matter was adjourned. Deshmukh is clear: he isn’t going to attend any summons till the top court hears his petition.

Meanwhile, on August 6, the ED conducted fresh raids on engineering college Nagpur Institute of Technology run by Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha, a trust that is headed by Deshmukh. This raid followed two others in the past two months conducted in properties associated with the politician.

What are the allegations against Deshmukh – a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) politician who had to resign from his state cabinet post – and what has been its political fallout for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of which the NCP is part?

To answer this, one must return to a crime scene, its first investigating officer, a heated discussion in the state assembly, and the transfer of Mumbai’s top cop a week later on March 17.