He said that the government has requested the CBI to take the custody of Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan. After the Wadhawan brothers and 21 others, including their family members, reached Mahabaleshwar hill town, they were quarantined there by the Satara district administration.
In a Facebook address, Deshmukh said he has requested the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take the custody of Wadhawans after their quarantine period ends at 2 pm on Wednesday.
"The Wadhawans' quarantine will end at 2 p.m. today. On Tuesday, we wrote to the Central Bureau of Investigation and ED to take them into custody," Deshmukh said.
He though added that until they are handed over to the CBI or ED, they will remain safely in the custody of the state government.
"They will be safe and secure in our custody... Nobody will be allowed to flee to London... When the CBI approaches us we shall hand them over for further investigations," Deshmukh said.
A massive political row erupted after the Wadhawans and their families were granted permission to travel from Khandala hill station in Pune to Mahabaleshwar hill station in Satara district on April 8 - at the height of the ongoing Covid lockdown.
Kapil Wadhawan, the 46-year-old chairman and managing director of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), was arrested on January 27 this year by the Enforcement Directorate for his dubious dealings with gangster Iqbal, who died in 2013, and was booked under provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He was granted bail on February 21 by a special PMLA court in Mumbai.