[BREAKING] Mumbai court refuses bail to Anil Deshmukh in corruption case

A Mumbai court on Monday dismissed the bail plea filed by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case initiated against him. [Anil Vasantrao Deshmukh vs CBI].Special Judge SH Gwalani held that non accompanying of documents and statements of witnesses along with the chargesheet did not deem the chargesheet incomplete and therefore could not be cited as a ground for default bail."..non accompanying the documents and statement of witnesses along with chargesheet which was filed on 02.06.2022 not in any way is incomplete chargesheet for the purpose of consideration of default bail. Accordingly, no grounds are made out for grant default bail to applicants/accused," he said..Deshmukh and his associates are being investigated for alleged corruption between 2019 and 2021.Based on the findings of the preliminary investigation into a complaint by advocate Dr. Jaishri Patil, the CBI had charged Deshmukh and unknown others.The inquiry was launched after the Bombay High Court issued a direction to that effect on April 5, 2021, in response to a petition filed by Param Bir Singh, former Commissioner of Mumbai Police.Deshmukh was named in the FIR after an investigation, along with personal secretary Sanjeev Palande, personal assistant Kundan Shinde, and dismissed Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze, whose names were later added.Deshmukh and others were arrested for the first time in November 2021 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the same case for money laundering offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).They were later apprehended by the CBI in the first week of April this year.They were detained by the CBI until April 16, when they were transferred to judicial custody..They applied for default bail, claiming that the agency's chargesheet was incomplete and that the investigation was not completed.Opposing the application on behalf of the CBI, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh pointed out that the chargesheet was complete since it contained names of the accused and charges against them with the witness list. Any plea claiming right of default bail if accrued, should have been filed before the chargesheet was filed.Singh's contention was that the agency would be continuing to investigate into the case, as the chargesheet had been filed based on a preliminary investigation..In response to the contention, Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhri and Advocate Aniket Nikam for Deshmukh argued that the chargesheet filed against Deshmukh only pertained to the issue of alleged extortion from orchestra bars and restaurants, which was one of the three issues that the agency was investigating into. They claimed that the agency had not investigated the issue of former Mumbai cop Sachin Waze's reinstatement and the transfer of all high-profile cases being investigated by Mumbai police to him, as well as the issue of police officer transfers.Their contention was that 'further investigation' could be done only if there had been an 'initial investigation' into any issue. If not, it would only amount to fresh investigation which was impermissible. In reply, Anil Singh said that in the case, regarding the first allegation, prosecution had filed the chargesheet and regarding the second and third allegations, prosecution had mentioned in the chargesheet that further investigation under section 173(8) of CrPC was in progress.The court, after hearing both the parties, held that no grounds were made out for grant default bail and hence the reliefs claimed in the applications could not be granted.[Read Order]