SC asks Bombay HC to consider hearing of Anil Deshmukh's bail plea expediously

|HT|

Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Bombay high court to consider hearing former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh's bail petition in a money laundering case expeditiously. The senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, currently in judicial custody, told the apex court his bail plea had not been taken up in the high court since March 25. The Supreme Court asked the former minister to file an application in high court for an early hearing of his pending plea.

Last week, Deshmukh was admitted to the ICU of the civic-run KEM Hospital after he complained of high blood pressure and chest pain.

The 72-year-old former minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged ₹100-crore extortion and money laundering case in November 2021. The ED had registered the case against Deshmukh and others based on a corruption case filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The NCP leader had stepped down as home minister after former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of corruption. Days later, he was booked by the CBI in a case.

Last month, the Justice KU Chandiwal Commission appointed to probe Singh’s allegations against Deshmukh gave him a clean chit and called the Indian Police Services (IPS) officer’s claims false in a 201-page reportsubmitted to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

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