ED Gets Nod to Prosecute Anil Deshmukh

• ED receives Governor’s approval to prosecute former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
• Agency informed a special Mumbai court that sanction was granted on May 21.
• Proceedings relate to the alleged ₹100-crore extortion case under the PMLA.
• Deshmukh has denied the allegations and sought publication of the Chandiwal Commission report.

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 4th Aug: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured the Maharashtra Governor’s approval to prosecute former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a money laundering case linked to the alleged ₹100-crore extortion allegations.

The ED informed a special court in Mumbai on Monday that it had received the Governor’s sanction on May 21 to prosecute Deshmukh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Deshmukh, who belongs to the Sharad Pawar-led party, has consistently denied the allegations against him.

The case traces back to March 2021, when former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, in a letter to then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, alleged that Deshmukh had asked police officials to collect ₹100 crore every month.

Deshmukh subsequently resigned as Maharashtra Home Minister after the Bombay High Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the allegations.

Separately, Deshmukh had in April approached Maharashtra Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, seeking directions to the state government to make public the final report of the Chandiwal Commission, which investigated the allegations against him.

The commission, headed by retired Bombay High Court judge Justice K.U. Chandiwal, submitted its 1,400-page final report on April 26, 2022.

Deshmukh claimed that despite repeated requests, the state government had not released the report even four years after receiving it.

According to Deshmukh, he had written 11 letters to the Chief Minister seeking publication of the report, besides approaching the Chief Secretary and officials of the departments concerned.

He argued that the commission’s conclusions, observations and recommendations directly concerned allegations against him and therefore affected his public and personal rights.

Deshmukh also sought details of any action taken by the government on the commission’s findings and questioned why the report had not been tabled in the Maharashtra legislature.

The Governor’s sanction now clears a key procedural requirement for the ED to proceed with the prosecution in the money laundering case.