Maharashtra Ex Home Minister's Son Granted Bail In Money Laundering Case

A special court on Tuesday granted bail to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh's son Salil Deshmukh after he appeared before it in connection with a money laundering case.

A special court designated to hear cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had in February issued a summons to Salil Deshmukh after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted its complaint (charge sheet) in the case.

Salil Deshmukh, the elder son of Anil Deshmukh, was arraigned as an accused in the case.

After appearing before the court on Tuesday, Salil Deshmukh filed an application through his advocate Aniket Nikam requesting the court to accept his appearance and grant him bail.

The court accepted this application and granted bail.

The application said the accusations levelled against Salil Deshmukh were "absolutely unfounded".

It further said that Salil Deshmukh was never arrested by the ED in the case to date and that he has cooperated in the investigation.

The ED opposed Salil Deshmukh's plea saying he had been summoned by the anti-money laundering agency twice but he never appeared. The ED also stated that though Salil Deshmukh had been summoned by the court in February he appeared only now.

"He has no respect for the agency, no respect for the court and so the application may be rejected," the agency said.

In the application, Salil Deshmukh said while the scheduled offence remained confined to the alleged acts of omission and commission of his father as the then Home Minister, the present PMLA case has spread it tentacles beyond the precincts of the scheduled offence and certain accusations which have no relation to any schedule offence have been levelled against him.

"The accusations against the Applicant are not attributable to any criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence and thus dehors the nature of these transactions, the same cannot come with the fold of proceeds of crime and consequential money laundering," it said.

The application also stated that Anil Deshmukh has been granted bail in the case by the Bombay High Court earlier this month.

"The high court in its order had clearly stated that none of the properties or assets (mentioned in the ED complaint) was derived or obtained from proceeds of crime," it added.

Salil Deshmukh is neither named in the scheduled/predicate offence nor has any role to play in any act of omission or commission that may have been attributed to his father, the application said.

It further said that Salil Deshmukh has no criminal antecedents and comes from a respectable family and hence is not a flight risk.

The ED began its probe against Anil Deshmukh after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against him over allegations of extortion made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

The ED claimed Anil Deshmukh had misused his official position and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

The money was channelled to a Nagpur-based educational trust controlled by the Deshmukh family, according to the ED.

While Anil Deshmukh has been granted bail in this case, he continues to remain in jail in the case lodged against him by the CBI on corruption charges.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)