CBI files chargesheet against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in corruption case
The central agency had arrested Deshmukh and his two staffers in April.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday filed a chargesheet against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and two others in a corruption case, Live Law reported.
The 59-page chargesheet was filed in a Mumbai court against the former minister and his aides Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde, the Hindustan Times reported.
All of them have been booked on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy and also under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested Deshmukh and his two aides in April.
The chargesheet was filed a day after dismissed Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze was allowed to become an approver in the case. An approver is a person who is involved in a crime and provides evidence against the accomplices.
The case is related to accusations made by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh who had written to Maharashtra 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.
In a letter to Thackeray, Singh had written that Vaze told him Deshmukh had asked him to collect Rs 100 crore every month through illegal channels.
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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report against Deshmukh, Vaze, and others that same month.