ED Charge Sheets Anil Deshmukh, Sons, in Bribery, Money-Laundering Case
The supplementary charge sheet running into several thousands pages was filed before the Special PMLA Court and among other things, has accused Deshmukh of corruption and money-laundering.
Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and has named his two sons, Hrishikesh and Salil, in the alleged bribery case lodged against him, officials said here.
The supplementary charge sheet running into several thousands pages was filed before the Special PMLA Court and among other things, has accused Deshmukh of corruption and money-laundering.
A senior Nationalist Congress Party leader, Deshmukh was arrested on November 2, a day after he appeared before the ED offices in Mumbai, and has remained in custody since then.
The ED has claimed that Deshmukh was the prime beneficiary of the laundering of the bribe monies allegedly collected by dismissed policeman Sachin Vaze, who is also an accused in the same case.
In the earlier charge sheet filed in August, the ED had named 14 accused, including Deshmukh’s private secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde, a trust run by the Deshmukh family in Nagpur, and others.
The ED has contended that the Desmhmukh family was controlling or managing the activities of over two dozen companies that were used to launder the bribe money by showing them as donations for CSR activities.
Denying the allegations, Deshmukh has countered the ED claiming that the money was loans and CSR funds received from various companies.
The supplementary charge sheet includes statements of Deshmukh, former Mumbai police commissioner Parambir Singh, ex-Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte, certain IPS officers, police officials and other witnesses in the case, besides various documents and other evidence that came up during the probe.
The ED probe started after this the Central Bureau of Investigation filed its FIR against Deshmukh on April 21 accusing him of graft and misusing his official position as minister, but he has consistently refuted all the allegations against him.
The central agencies said that as the Home Minister, Deshmukh had allegedly directed Vaze to collect Rs 100 crore per month from hoteliers and had collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bar owners in Mumbai which was then laundered through his trusts.
