New Delhi: Two courts in Mumbai on Friday granted CBI the custody of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, his two aides and dismissed police officer Sachin Waze for investigation in connection with a corruption case.
NCP leader Deshmukh (71) and his aides Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde are currently in judicial custody in a money laundering case. They are lodged at Mumbai's Arthur Road prison.
Deshmukh's bail application was rejected by a PMLA court in March. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 1 last year.
The CBI has filed an application for their custody before additional sessions judge DP Singhade.
On Thursday, judge Singhade issued a letter of request to the special PMLA court, which hears ED cases, to transfer Deshmukh and the other two to the custody of the CBI.
Sachin Waze was also taken into custody by the CBI. The National Investigation Agency arrested Waze in March 2021 in the Antilia bomb scare-Mansukh Hiran murder case. Judge DP Singhade sent a similar letter of request to the NIA's special court.
Waze is currently in judicial custody at the Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai.
The superintendents of respective jails were ordered by the special PMLA and NIA courts on Friday to hand over the custody of the four accused — Deshmukh, Palande, Shinde, and Waze — to the CBI in separate orders.
The money laundering case was registered against Deshmukh by the ED after allegations of corruption were levelled by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
In his letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, after he was removed from Mumbai Police Commissioner's post, Param Bir Singh had alleged Deshmukh asked Sachin Waze to extort over Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants of Mumbai.
Deshmukh denied the allegations but stepped down from his post after the Bombay High Court directed the CBI to register a case against him.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea by the Maharashtra government challenging an order of the Bombay High Court dismissing its petition seeking an SIT to probe the corruption case against Deshmukh.