Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has challenged two orders of the Mumbai Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court and special court to hand over his custody to the CBI. Orders were passed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Deshmukh is facing corruption charges after the CBI registered an FIR against him and others following the Bombay High Court order. While the CBI was still probing, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Deshmukh for allegedly possessing and laundering corruption money.
After Deshmukh was arrested by the ED on November 2 last year, he had been in their custody and later in the custody of the PMLA court.
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After investigating the case for nearly a year, the CBI decided to take Deshmukh and others into custody. The agency filed an application before the special CBI court of Judge DP Shingade to take him into custody.
The CBI application asked Justice Shingde to request a special court under PMLA to transfer the custody of Deshmukh, his personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and his personal assistant Kundan Shinde. His custody was to be transferred to CBI Investigating Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar.
Judge Shingde passed the order on March 31 and issued a letter of request to the special court.
Similarly, special PMLA court judge Rahul Rokade also passed the order on April 1 and accepted the CBI’s application. He directed the superintendent of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail to hand over the custody of the accused to Mukesh Kumar.
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Judge Rokade had specified that after the investigation, the custody of Deshmukh and others should be given back, and the jail authorities should be informed accordingly. However, when the CBI Investigating Officer went to hand him over to the custody, he was told that Deshmukh had been admitted to JJ Hospital after falling in jail.
A bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere will hear on Wednesday Deshmukh’s challenge to the two orders of CBI and PMLA.