Mumbai Court grants bail to Anil Deshmukh’s son Salil Deshmukh in money laundering case

A Mumbai Court on Tuesday granted bail to Salil Deshmukh, son of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, in a money laundering case. .Both the father and son were chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate in the case which was registered based on the FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booking the former minister on corruption charges. The money laundering case stated that Deshmukh was laundered the money he acquired as a sitting minister into his family owned Trust. ED stated that they had summoned Salil twice for interrogation, however, he had skipped appearance. Salil appeared before the Special Court today and through his lawyers Inderpal Singh and Aniket Nikam filed for bail. The special judge MG Deshpande allowed the application and directed Salil to deposit ₹3 lakhs surety as also surrender his passport. .The bail plea stated that the accusations against Salil were absolutely mis-founded. It further pointed out that Salil had never been arrested in the case till date, even when the chargesheet had been filed. He claimed to have co-operated with the investigation; even though he was neither named in the scheduled offence, nor did the agency attribute any role to him in the commission of the offence. Salil also relied upon the Bombay High Court order by which his father was granted bail in the same case. “The High Court has clearly held that in absence of any accusation that any property was derived or obtained as a result of any criminal activity relating to any scheduled offence by his father before he was made Home Minister, the allegations of money laundering are not only untenable but also a perversity in the eyes of law”, his plea stated. .While Salil has been granted bail, his father continues to remain in judicial custody as he is also arrested in the corruption case being investigated by CBI. The special CBI judge rejected the former minister’s bail plea, and the same has been challenged before the High Court. The High Court will hear his plea on November 11.