Nagpur: In a late-night development, former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate sleuths, after questioning for more than 12 hours on Monday. Deshmukh was grilled by the ED officials in Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case.
On October 29, the NCP leader’s plea was rejected by the Bombay High Court to quash the summons against him laid by the ED. The ED sleuths have been carrying out searches at various locations related to Deshmukh and issued summons against him, requiring him to be present on specific dates.
According to officials, Deshmukh was arrested at around 1:30am under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik claimed that Deshmukh’s arrest was ‘politically motivated’ and was aimed to malign the image of the three-tiered government (Maha Vikas Aghadi) leaders. Malik further took a jibe at the Centre and said that scaring leaders by abusing power should be stopped.
While addressing the media, Malik said, “The entire action (of arresting Deshmukh) is politically motivated. It is aimed at scaring the leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance).”
Deshmukh was accused of corruption and extortion by Mumbai’s former top cop Param Bir Singh who is now reportedly missing. In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh accused Deshmukh of interference and using the police to extort up to Rs 100 crore every month.
