Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, on Monday, 19 July, said that he will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record his statement, following the Supreme Court's decision on his plea seeking protection from any coercive action.
This is in connection with a probe into a money laundering case that was registered against him earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Deshmukh also shared that his family's property, worth approximately Rs 4 crore, had been seized by the ED, but rubbished claims of the seized property being worth Rs 300 crore.
WHAT DID DESHMUKH SAY?
According to news agency PTI, Anil Deshmukh in a video message said:
“I had received ED’s summons after which I filed a petition in the Supreme Court. I will go to the ED to record my statement after the SC’s decision on my petition."
Deshmukh is reported to have earlier skipped ED's summons for questioning, and had moved the SC seeking protection from any coercive action.
Deshmukh was also quoted by PTI as saying: “The ED has provisionally seized my family’s property estimated at Rs 4 crore,” which includes land worth Rs 2.67 crore, that was purchased by his son Salil Deshmukh in 2006. He also added:
"However, some media reports are saying that the ED has seized Salil Deshmukh's land worth Rs 300 crore, which, in fact, was purchased by my son's company for Rs 2.67 crore. These news are misleading."
As per PTI, Deshmukh's comments come after ED conducted searches at two of his residences in Nagpur district.
BACKGROUND
Deshmukh's personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde, who had been taken in for interrogation by the ED earlier in June, were booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after nine hours of questioning, news agency PTI reported.
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh in March had alleged that Anil Deshmukh had been involved in corruption, meddling in the police force’s functioning and manipulating transfers and postings in the state, among other charges. Singh had demanded a CBI probe into his allegations.
Singh had claimed that Deshmukh held meetings in February 2021 with junior police officers, including Sachin Vaze, who was arrested in relation to the Ambani bomb scare case, and instructed them to accumulate Rs 100 crore every month.
Following the former top cop's allegations, the CBI had filed an FIR over the charges of money laundering against Deshmukh on 24 May.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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