The Maharashtra government today moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court’s order for a preliminary probe by the CBI into allegations of extortion against former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. This comes just a day immediately after Deshmukh resigned as state house minister immediately after the High Court directed the central investigating agency to conduct a preliminary inquiry inside 15 days into the charges levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.
Later, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari handed more than the charge of the house division to cabinet minister and NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil. Earlier today, Patil had mentioned that the government would move the prime court in search of cancellation of the HC order against Anil Deshmukh. “The government will challenge the high court’s order in the Supreme Court,” he mentioned.
Directing a CBI probe, the bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni mentioned this was an “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” case that warranted an independent inquiry. “We agree that this is an unprecedented case before the court…Deshmukh is Home Minister who leads the police… There has to be an independent inquiry…But, the CBI need not register an FIR immediately,” the court was quoted as saying PTI.
The court mentioned that considering the fact that the state government had currently ordered an inquiry by a higher-level committee into the matter, the CBI need to have not instantly register an FIR. It, even so, mentioned that the central agency should total the preliminary inquiry inside 15 days and then take a choice on additional course of action.
Following the order, Deshmukh resigned on moral grounds. Param Bir Singh has accused him of directing his officers to gather Rs one hundred crore month-to-month from 1750 restaurants and bars operating in Mumbai as bribe. In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, the former prime cop mentioned that Deshmukh had named Sachin Vaze and instructed him to enable him gather Rs one hundred crore month-to-month.
“In and around mid-February and thereafter, the Hon’ble Home Minister had called Shri Vaze to his official residence…Hon’ble Home Minister expressed to Shri Vaze that he had a target to accumulate Rs. 100 crores a month. For achieving the target, the Hon’ble Home Minister told Shri Vaze that there are about 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai and if a sum of Rs. 2-3 lakhs each was collected from each of them, a monthly collection of Rs. 40-50 crores was achievable. The Hon’ble Home Minister added that the rest of the collection could be made from other sources,” Param Bir Singh mentioned in his letter to the CM.