Anil Deshmukh's bail by Bombay HC put on hold for 10 days
The Bombay High Court granted bail to Maharashtra's former Home Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh in corruption case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 12. However, the bail was put on hold moments after the Agency sought time to challenge the bail in the Supreme Court.
Deshmukh filed a bail plea in the Bombay High Court after a special CBI court junked his request in November this year. The 74-year-old former Maharashtra home minister requested bail on medical and merit grounds.
Meanwhile, NCP workers started celebrating outside Anil Deshmukh’s residence as the news of his bail came out.
#WATCH | NCP workers celebrate outside the residence of Maharashtra Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh after Bombay High Court granted him bail in Rs 100 cr extortion case. pic.twitter.com/XpJ7iLMm3z
— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2022
The Agency arrested the NCP leader last month, and he has been in judicial custody. In October of this year, Deshmukh was admitted in a private hospital for coronary angiography.
In March last year, IPS officer Param Bir Singh alleged that Deshmukh had given him a target of collecting Rs 100 crore per month from Mumbai’s restaurants and bars. Deshmukh was Maharashtra's home minister at the time.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the financial aspect of the case had alleged that Deshmukh collected Rs 4.70 crore from bars and restaurants in Mumbai, through police officer Sachin Waze, while he was serving as Maharashtra Home Minister.
On November 18, a special court granted bail to former policeman Sachin Waze in the same case.
In April last year, the High Court orders the CBI to start a preliminary inquiry. Based on the same inquiry, the Agency lodged an FIR against Deshmukh and his associates in connection to the corruption and misuse of official power.
Anil Deshmukh resigned as Maharashtra Home Minister in April last year after the high court ordered a CBI probe into the corruption charges leveled against him by the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Singh.
First published: 12 December 2022, 13:14 IST