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Fresh ED summons to former Maha HM Anil Deshmukh and his son in bribery and extortion case

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued fresh summons (for the fourth time) to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and his son Hrishikesh to appear before it on Monday, August 2 at its Mumbai based office. 

The summons were issued after the Supreme Court adjourned Deshmukh's plea, seeking protection from any coercive action by the ED in the criminal case registered under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, of an alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket in the Maharashtra police establishment, was listed on August 3.

According to the ED notice that has been issued under provisions of the PMLA the agency has said that it wants to further record his statement in the cases filed against him in the bribery case as alleged by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh in March this year. 

Singh who had succeeded Sanjay Barve as Police Commissioner on February 2020, was removed from his post by the Maharashtra government on 18 March 2021 in the aftermath of a security incident in which sticks of gelignite were discovered outside of the home of businessman Mukesh Ambani.

Two days later on March 20, Singh in an eight-page letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleged that as the then home minister Deshmukh had asked now dismissed assistant police inspector of Mumbai Police, Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 Crore every month from businesses based in Mumbai. 

While the exact whereabouts of Deshmukh was not known he had recently issued a video statement stating that he would appear before the ED after the Supreme Courts apex decision on his petition. 

Deshmukh said in his video message,  "I had received ED's summons after which I filed a petition in the Supreme Court. I will go to the ED to record my statement after the SC's decision on my petition."

Last month ED had raided several of his premises in Mumbai and Nagpur apart from places of his aides and some associates and subsequently arrested his personal secretary Sanjeev Palande (51) and personal assistant Kundan Shinde (45) in the case.

The ED has collected strong evidence of having received Rs 4.70 crore in cash from various bar owners, through Waze.

Apart from ED, a parallel probe is also being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the orders of the Bombay High Court which had responded to petitions filed by others including Singh. 

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