The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday opposed and sought dismissal of the plea of Sanjeev Palande, personal secretary to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, seeking quashing of the money laundering and corruption case registered against him by the central agency. was done.
Palande and Deshmukh’s personal assistant (PA) Kundan Shinde were arrested by the ED in June after the agency raided Deshmukh’s residence in Nagpur.
The ED probe claimed that Deshmukh, while in office as Maharashtra home minister, “illegally received around Rs 4.7 crore in cash from various orchestra bar owners” between December 2020 and February 2021. Through sacked Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze.
According to the ED, Deshmukh’s family “laundered a tainted amount of Rs 4.18 crore and presented it as immaculate by showing the amount received by the trust, i.e. Sri Sai Shikshan Sanstha”.
The ED probe into Deshmukh’s financial transactions is in line with the CBI probe into former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations of corruption against the NCP leader. The CBI started the preliminary investigation on the basis of the HC order on 5 April and filed an FIR on 21 April.
ED Assistant Director Taseen Sultan on Friday filed an affidavit in the high court against Palande’s plea, seeking segregation of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).
The agency claimed that Palande, in his statement, had said that a list containing the names of MLAs and MLCs concerned with reference to transfers and postings of police officers of the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and above, had given. Reference was received in the Home Minister’s office.
“The petitioner further submitted that the list used to be informal in nature and no record was maintained in this regard in the Home Minister’s office. According to the ED, Palande also stated that he used to forward the list of officers to the Police Establishment Board (PEB) as per the directions of Deshmukh, knowing that there was no such preparation and forwarding by the state government. There are no guidelines. A list,” the affidavit said.
The ED said that the petitioner was rightly arrested on the basis of material in his possession under Section 19 of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act). The agency demanded from the court, “He is not entitled to any relief, interim or final, and his arguments are wrong and denied, hence the petition be dismissed with cost.”
A division bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Sarang Kotwal is likely to hear Palande’s plea on December 14.
On October 29, the HC had dismissed Deshmukh’s plea, seeking quashing of summons by the ED, asking him to appear in connection with the money laundering case. The ED had arrested Deshmukh on November 2 after questioning him at its office for over 12 hours.
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