This article is written by Abhishree Paradkar, a student of Symbiosis Law School, Pune
On Monday, the Supreme Court of India denied the former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh the grant of interim relief. He had been seeking the protection for so many courses of action against him in connection with the case of money laundering that was launched against him by the enforcement directorate.
This matter was looked into by a 3-judge bench consisting of Justice Krishna Murari and V Ramasubramanian that was headed by Justice AM Khanvilkar and he said that the applicant has the liberty access to all the remedies that are available to him under law. However, the bench also said that they are not inclined to grant the applicant interim relief.
The advocate appearing on behalf of Deshmukh contended before the bench that this was a classic case of conducting a “political witch-hunt” against the applicant.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the government alleged that the applicant had serious allegations of money laundering.
Earlier a summons had been issued by the enforcement directorate against the NCP leader in connection with a criminal case that had been registered under PMLA which related to bribery come extortion racket of alleged Rupees 100 crores which also led to Deshmukh resigning from his position in April last year.
This case against Deshmukh had been registered then CBI lodged a case of corruption alleging bribery of around Rupees 100 crores made by the former police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
After he was removed from the post of police commissioner, sing wrote a letter to the chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, where he alleged that Anil Deshmukh had asked the suspended Mumbai Police Inspector Sachin Waze, to extort around rupees hundred crores each month from restaurants and bars in Mumbai.
Following the allegations, Deshmukh had to resign from his post in April. However, he continued to deny any wrongdoing on his part.
The ED had arrested the personal secretary and personal assistant of annealed Deshmukh after it had carried out raids against them as well as the NCP leader in Mumbai and Nagpur.
