A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court denied the former Maharashtra home minister, Anil Deshmukh, bail in a corruption case involving $100 million in 2021. Since his arrest on November 2, 2021, Mr. Deshmukh has been housed at Arthur Road prison.
The leader of the Nationalist Congress Party’s default bail in the case has also been rejected by the special CBI court in July 2022.
Asking for the bail Anil Deshmukh’s lawyer stated that “He is a septuagenarian suffering from several serious ailments that have virtually rendered him unable to undertake ordinary pursuits of life without adequate medical treatment.”
His bail application stated that “in peculiar facts and circumstances which give rise to a reasonable inference that the entire proceedings are not only actuated with malice but also bereft of any legal sanctity,” his bail application stated. After hearing both parties out, Special CBI Court Judge S. H. Gwalani dismissed his argument. The full order from the court has not yet been made public.
The leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was detained by authorities on November 2, 2021. He underwent coronary angiography last week after being hospitalised at a private hospital.
In March 2021, senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh claimed that then-home minister Deshmukh had set a goal for police officials to collect Rs 100 crore from Mumbai’s eateries and bars each month.
Similar accusations were made against him by former assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, who was detained in connection with the “Antilia” bomb scare case in March 2021.
The high court had ordered the CBI to conduct a preliminary investigation in April 2021. Based on this investigation, the CBI filed a first information report (FIR) accusing Deshmukh and his colleagues of corruption and abuse of government authority.
Mr. Deshmukh resigned from his position as home minister in April 2021, and the High Court ordered the CBI to conduct a preliminary investigation into Mr. Deshmukh. Soon after, a First Information Report was filed against Mr. Deshmukh under Sections 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code.
