Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that the proceedings initiated against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case were “arbitrary” and questioned the manner in which the agency has conducted investigations.
Seeking interim protection from punitive action, Deshmukh said his intention was not to evade proceedings, but to co-operate and investigate the case initiated by the ED to get an opportunity to “expose the lies and laxity”. have to be involved. He also said that he fears arrest as the ED is acting with a “vendetta”.
A division bench of Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Sarang V Kotwal was hearing a petition filed by Deshmukh, seeking quashing of summons issued by the ED, asking him to appear in the money laundering and corruption case. had gone.
The ED has issued at least five summons to Deshmukh asking him to appear before him. However, Deshmukh did not follow any of these.
He had written several letters to the agency requesting that he be interrogated through video conferencing. COVID-19 global pandemic. Deshmukh has moved the Supreme Court, demanding a “fair and proper investigation”. In his application before the HC, filed through advocate Aniket Nikam, Deshmukh has sought permission to submit documents or statements to the agency through electronic mode and to be represented through an “authorised agent”. He has also demanded that the case be probed by a special investigation team comprising ED officials from outside the regional office in Mumbai.
The ED probe claimed that Deshmukh, as home minister, had “illegally received around Rs 4.7 crore in cash from various orchestra bar owners” between December 2020 and February 2021.
Senior advocate Vikram Choudhary, representing Deshmukh on Thursday, sought quashing of the summons issued to his client from June 25 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He claimed that it violated the fundamental rights of Deshmukh.
Choudhary further said that Deshmukh has previously complied with the summons and his authorized agents had appeared before the ED. He said the ED had then issued a second summon following which Deshmukh requested that he be allowed to appear through virtual mode. Choudhary argued that the ED had refused to share the copy of the Enforcement Case Information Report to Deshmukh, not providing him with a list of documents sought by him. The lawyer said the ED, while issuing the third summons on August 2, did not wait for the outcome of Deshmukh’s petition before the Supreme Court.
Choudhary said Deshmukh is a senior citizen suffering from ailments, and has come in contact with several ED officials, who had come to meet him without any physical distance in the past few months. Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, representing the ED, said Deshmukh had sought similar relief in his petition before the Supreme Court.
The court will hear the matter on Friday.
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