Anil Deshmukh allowed to approach vacation bench

A bench of the Bombay High Court of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale, on Thursday, granted Maharashtra's former home minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh liberty to move vacation bench in case of an urgency, and was asked to give the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) a 48-hour notice in the corruption FIR registered against him.

The bench also granted four-week time to CBI after additional solicitor general Anil Singh told the court that he had received the application on Wednesday night. Amit Desai, appearing for Deshmukh, vehemently opposed for time to be granted.

But the bench held that it would give the requisite time to CBI to respond.

On Monday, Deshmukh had approached the Bombay High Court against the First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI). The politician has also sought for protection from any sort of action by the CBI. As per the information available on the HC website, Deshmukh has filed this fresh writ petition on Tuesday evening through his advocate Sonali Jadhav.

CBI had registered an FIR last month after conducting a preliminary probe, in which, the central agency concluded that Deshmukh "misused his office and had indulged in to corrupt activities."

The FIR was filed after on the basis of an order by a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta last month, while hearing a bunch of petitions seeking a thorough probe by an independent agency into the allegations levelled against Deshmukh by Parambir Singh, the then top cop of Mumbai.

In an eight page letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh had claimed that Deshmukh had instructed suspended cop Sachin Waze to extort at least Rs 100 crore per month from various bars and restaurants across the city.