ED searches at college owned by Deshmukh

NAGPUR: In its pursuit to dig out evidence in an alleged corruption case against former Maharashtra home minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted fresh raids on an engineering college known to be controlled by him, on Friday.

Deshmukh, who is in Delhi, was not available for comments. His personal assistant Yogesh Kothekar confirmed that ED had seized some documents from the college on Friday afternoon.

According to the available information, around noon, a team of four ED officers and about 20-armed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel reached the Nagpur Institute of Technology, Fetri, which is about 15km from Nagpur.

The college is run by Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha, headed by Deshmukh. His wife Aarti is the trust’s vice-president, while eldest son and zilla parishad member Salil is its secretary and youngest son Hrishikesh the executive committee member.

The entire college premise was cordoned by CRPF jawans, and ED officers seized several documents and questioned the institute’s employees. The team left the spot around 3.30pm with the seized documents.

People aware of the developments said that no member of the Deshmukh family or his close relatives were present in the college during the ED raid.

This is the third ED raid on

Deshmukh’s property in Nagpur. Last month, ED had raided Deshmukh’s ancestral houses at Wadvihira and Katol in Nagpur district in connection with the alleged ₹100-crore extortion case. ED also raided his Nagpur residence at Civil Lines in June.

Former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that as the Maharashtra home minister, Deshmukh had asked suspended police officer Sachin Vaze and other cops to extort ₹100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

Following the allegations, the Bombay high court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a preliminary inquiry.

The agency registered a first information report (FIR) against Deshmukh in April, after which he stepped down as the minister “on moral grounds”. The ED, was also asked to join the probe. Upon scrutinising the trust’s bank statements, ED said there are a number of cheque entries in the recent past amounting to around ₹4.18 crore, which was received from various Delhibased companies. ED stated the money was routed to the trust in the form of donations.

Anil Deshmukh.