Anil Deshmukh bail plea: Mumbai Court to pronounce order on March 9

The Special Court under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Friday reserved verdict in the regular bail application filed by former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). .Special Judge RN Rokade reserved the plea filed in December 2021 for orders after hearing the matter for a span of over a month.He will pronounce the decision on March 9, 2022.Deshmukh is accused in the probe initiated by ED after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed FIR following a Court-directed enquiry into allegations of corruption and misuse of his official position.He was arrested on November 2, 2021 after a 12-hour interrogation by the ED and remanded to ED custody that was was extended till November 15 by the Bombay High Court. He was then sent to judicial custody where he remains till date.His present bail application came 10 days after the Special Court rejected his default bail application..Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari along with advocate Aniket Nikam advanced the following arguments for Deshmukh: That Deshmukh's case amounts to abuse of power and authority meant to harass him with vested interests;That the trial is unlikely to commence soon with investigation still ongoing and no charge sheet having been filed in the main case being probed by the CBI;That the investigating agency is already in possession of some material, which they claim is not enough to add Deshmukh as an accused, and yet sufficient for his arrest; That the entire matter relating to various aspects of PMLA including the ambit and scope of certain provisions is sub-judice before the Supreme Court in a plea which also includes Deshmukh as a party; and That during the course of investigation which led to the complaint and supplementary complaint of ED, around 100 witnesses had been interrogated, and none of the witnesses claimed to have been influenced by Deshmukh. .Additional Solicitor Anil Singh with Advocate Shreeram Shirsat opposed the bail application with the following submissions:That Deshmukh was the main conspirator and brain behind the conspiracy that led to the present case which the agency is presently investigating;That he had always been the prime suspect in the FIR registered by the CBI;That he is an influential person having deep political roots and there is every likelihood of him obfuscating the trail of proceeds of crime;That Deshmukh played a significant role in generating and laundering the proceeds of crime which was collected from bar owners, and projected the same as untainted by depicting it as legitimate donations.