A Special Court under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has denied bail to former Home Minister of Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)..Special Judge RN Rokade pronounced the verdict today. He had reserved the plea filed in December 2021 for orders after hearing the matter for a span of over a month.The Court observed that apart from the statements of witnesses, there was money trails and charts showing the trail of money indicating that Deshmukh laundered unaccounted cash to the tune of ₹13.25 crores since 2011. The Court also observed that there was prima facie evidence to indicate that Deshmukh exercised undue influence over the transfers and postings of police officials. "Having regard to the material placed on record, active involvement of the applicant in an offence of money laundering, seriousness of allegations, prime facie evidence in support of the allegations and the manner in which the offences is committed, I am of the view that the applicant is not entitled for discretionary relief of bail" the order held. .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; andThat 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 Hiten Venegaokar 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..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.
