The Enforcement Directorate on Monday submitted a complaint against Maharashtra’s former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and his private secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde in a money laundering case against them before a special prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) court.
Mr. Shine and Mr. Palande were arrested by ED on June 26 under Section 3 (offence of money laundering) and 19 (power to arrest) of PMLA and are currently in judicial custody. Despite five summons, Mr. Deshmukh failed to appear before the investigating agency.
On April 5, the Bombay High Court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct an inquiry against Mr. Deshmukh on charges of corruption. Soon a FIR was registered by the CBI against Mr. Deshmukh, which led to the ED initiating a probe against him.
In July Mr. Palande had admitted to the ED that Mr. Deshmukh had a role in transfer posting of police officers, especially the posting of IPS officers.
As per ED’s probe, 11 companies were directly controlled by family members of Mr. Deshmukh and another 13 companies came to light which are in the names of close associates of Deshmukh family. Bank account statements show that money has been flowing from companies indirectly controlled by Mr. Deshmukh’s family members to companies directly controlled by them.
There are statements of bar owners and managers that reveal that dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze, currently lodged at Taloja Central Jail, collected money from them and Vaze in his statement said he was getting direct instructions from Mr. Deshmukh to do so. Vaze has said he was told to collect ₹3 lakh per month from various bars and restaurants and that he handed over ₹4.70 crores from December 2020 to February 2021 to Mr. Shinde on behalf of Mr. Deshmukh.
