Bombay High Court extends ED custody of Anil Deshmukh after special Sunday hearing

At a special sitting held on Sunday, the Bombay High Court set aside the order of the Mumbai Sessions Court which had rejected plea by Enforcement Directorate (ED) to extend custody of former Home Minister of Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh in the money laundering case against him..Vacation judge Justice Madhav Jamdar extended Deshmukh's ED custody till November 12, 2021.Additional Sessions Judge PR Sitre had yesterday rejected ED's plea for extension of custody and remanded Deshmukh to judicial custody for 14 days..In its 32-page revision application, the ED submitted that Deshmukh refused to co-operate during the interrogation and was giving evasive replies to the questions put by the investigating officer. Hence, ED sought further remand of 9 days considering the magnitude of the fraud and seriousness of the issues involved..ED contended that investigation in money laundering case cannot be expected to be completed within a short span of time. "A sufficient opportunity needs to be given to the investigating agency to probe into entire gamut of the case so that the investigating agency can collect sufficient quality evidence which will help the agency to go to the root of the matter," the plea stated. ED informed the High Court that for "investigating into such a matter running into crores of rupees" only 5-day custody had been granted to them, out of which 2 days were Diwali holidays. .The central agency informed the Court that the Sessions Court ought to have noted that money was flowing from 13 companies indirectly owned by Deshmukh to 11 companies directly owned by Deshmukh. "Holiday Sessions Judge ought to have appreciated that shell companies have been used to layer the Proceeds of Crime," the plea stated. .ED submitted that the argument of Deshmukh's counsel that grounds for remand were similar was incorrect as ED had added additional grounds post the custodial interrogation. ED sought extension of custody to confront Deshmukh after examining the other accused in the case. .The counsel appearing for Anil Deshmukh conceded the prayer for ED custody without going into the maintainability of the application.He assured his willingness to face custodial investigation for about four days. .Deshmukh’s counsel submitted that although he can raise contentions regarding maintainability of the present application as well as on merits of the case but on instructions, he is making aforesaid statement. In light of the statement, Deshmukh submitted that the impugned order can be quashed and set aside by consent and therefore no detailed reasons ought to be assigned..Accordingly, Justice Jamdar set aside the Sessions Court order and extended Deshmukh's ED custody to November 12, 2021. .Before parting with the order, Justice Jamdar made observations on the merits of the case as well as maintainability while clarifying that these aspects had not been argued in light of the consent by Deshmukh counsel. .On arguments on the merits of the case he noted that “prima facie there is substance in the contentions raised by ASG and also contentions raised in the applications about the legality of the impugned order.”.On the maintainability of the revision application, Justice Jamdar relied upon a judgment by the Gujarat High Court in 2012.The Gujarat High Court had held that an order refusing to grant police remand would be a final order and a revision of that order order would be maintainable. The reasoning was that “an order refusing to grant remand has direct bearing on the proceedings of the trial itself and in a given case will definitely have effect on the ultimate decision of the case”..ED had initiated probe against Deshmukh and his associates after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a first information report (FIR) following a court-directed enquiry into allegations of corruption and misuse of his official position.ED had issued five summons to Deshmukh, to which he responded seeking permission to attend the questioning through his authorised representatives. Deshmukh had not complied with any of the summons.Simultaneously, Deshmukh challenged the summons before the Bombay High Court who dismissed his petition on Friday directing him to take appropriate steps to approach the Courts for anticipatory bail.Deshmukh appeared before the ED officials on Monday, November 1. After interrogation for about 12 hours, Deshmukh was arrested post midnight on Tuesday. The Mumbai court had then allowed ED custody of Deshmukh till November 6, 2021.The plea for extension of custody was, however, turned down yesterday by the Sessions Judge leading to present plea before the Bombay High Court..Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh with Advocate Shreeram Shirsat appeared for ED. Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari with Advocates Aniket Nikam and Inderpal Singh appeared for Deshmukh. .[Read order]