New Delhi, July 4: Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Sunday moved the Supreme Court seeking protection from any coercive action in a money laundering case.
The Enforcement Directorate had, on Saturday, issued fresh summons to the 71-year-old NCP leader seeking his appearance on July 5 in the case. The ED has, so far, issued three notices to Deshmukh, who has been asked to record his statement at the central agency’s office in south Mumbai on Monday.
Deshmukh has moved the top court seeking protection from any coercive action, Mumbai-based advocate Inderpal B Singh said in a video message released for the media. The former minister had skipped the two earlier summons citing his “vulnerability” to COVID-19 as the reason for non-compliance in his last communication to the agency. He instead offered the ED to record his statement through video conferencing.
The fresh summons by ED was issued in connection with the criminal case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) related to an alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket that led to Deshmukh’s resignation in April this year. The first summons followed raids conducted by the ED at his premises in Mumbai and Nagpur apart from that of his aides and some others last month. The agency subsequently arrested two of his aides in this case, personal secretary Sanjeev Palande (51) and personal assistant Kundan Shinde (45). They are in ED custody till July 6.
The agency, sources said, apart from the present case wants to question Deshmukh about his and his family members’ alleged links with certain shell companies that were being used to launder funds much before the present allegations of bribery in the Mumbai Police setup came to light. (PTI)
