The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday took custody of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case, PTI reported.

Deshmukh was taken into custody from the Arthur Road Prison in Central Mumbai and placed under arrest.

He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on November 2 and has been in judicial custody since then.

As Deshmukh moved the Bombay High Court against a special court order allowing the Central Bureau of Investigation to take his custody, a single-judge bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere on Wednesday recused herself from hearing the plea.

Later in the day, his lawyers mentioned the 71-year-old Nationalist Congress Party leader’s plea before a bench of Justice PD Naik, who also recused himself from hearing the matter, according to Bar and Bench.

The case

Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in March last year alleging that Deshmukh had asked some officers to extort Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in the city.

While Deshmukh denied the allegations against him, he had resigned from the Maharashtra Cabinet on April 5, 2021, after the Bombay High Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct a preliminary inquiry against him.

On April 4 this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation had taken Deshmukh’s personal assistant Kundan Shinde and secretary Sanjeev Palande into custody, The Indian Express reported.

Officials of the central agency could not arrest Deshmukh as he was admitted to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital after he had dislocated his shoulder. He was taken to the orthopaedic ward just hours after the Central Bureau of Investigation reached Arthur Road jail to secure his custody.