MUMBAI, Feb 6:
The special courts here on Monday allowed former Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh’s plea to travel to Nagpur and New Delhi for four weeks.
Deshmukh is an accused in money laundering and corruption cases being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) respectively.
The NCP leader is currently out on bail.
One of his bail conditions was to not leave the city without the permission of the special courts, presiding over the ED and CBI cases. Deshmukh’s plea for visiting Nagpur and New Delhi was allowed by both the courts.
In two separate pleas, filed through advocates Aniket Nikam and Inderpal Singh, last week, Deshmukh said he hailed from Nagpur and has deep family roots there, apart from being an elected representative of his constituency.
The plea also stated that the former minister needed to consult his lawyers in New Delhi to discuss further strategy in the present and connected cases.
Deshmukh was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case in November 2021 and the CBI arrested him in a corruption case in April last year.
He was in judicial custody for over a year before being granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in March 2021 alleged that Deshmukh, the then home minister, had given a target to police officers to collect Rs 100 crore per month from restaurants and bars.
Former assistant police inspector Waze, arrested in the case of an explosives-laden vehicle found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in Mumbai, had also levelled similar allegations.
The high court in April 2021 directed the CBI to carry out a preliminary inquiry, and based on the probe, the central agency registered an FIR against Deshmukh and others for alleged corruption and misuse of official power. (PTI)
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