Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was released from Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison on Wednesday after over a year of incarceration.

The Nationalist Congress Party leader had been in jail since November 2021 in connection with a corruption case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had in March last year written to Uddhav Thackeray, who was then the Maharashtra chief minister, alleging that Deshmukh had asked some officers to extort Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in the city.

On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court refused to further extend a stay on its order granting bail to Deshmukh, paving the way for his release.

“I have full faith in the judiciary....the High Court has observed that I was implicated in a false case,” Deshmukh said on Wednesday as senior Nationalist Congress Party leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, welcomed him outside the jail.

The Nationalist Congress Party said that Deshmukh got bail from the High Court as no allegations could be proved against him. “This is an example of how truth can be troubled but not defeated,” it said.

In a video released on Twitter, the party claimed that Deshmukh’s home and offices were raided 50 times by the Enforcement Directorate, 40 times by the Central Bureau of Investigation and 20 times by the Income Tax department.

“Param Bir Singh had initially claimed that corruption to the tune of Rs 100 crore had taken place,” the party said. “During investigation, the figure came down to Rs 4.7 crore. Now, the ED claims that the figure is Rs 1.71 crore.”

On December 12, the High Court had granted bail to the Nationalist Congress Party leader on a surety of Rs 10 lakh. However, the court had stayed its order for 10 days to allow the Central Bureau of Investigation to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

A single-judge bench of Justice Makarand S Karnik had in his order observed that except for the statement of dismissed police officer Sachin Waze, who later became an approver in the case, nothing else showed that that money was collected based on Deshmukh’s instructions.

“The applicant is no longer the home minister and therefore, there is no question of him influencing the investigation,” the judge had said. “The CBI may proceed with the investigation but not at the cost of the continued incarceration of the applicant.”