The Central Bureau of Investigation told the Bombay High Court on Monday that there was no need for prior sanction to investigate corruption allegations against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Live Law reported.

The CBI filed an affidavit before the court, opposing Deshmukh’s petition to quash the first information report registered against him.

The minister had argued that CBI needed sanction to prosecute him since the alleged instances of corruption were from the time when he was a public servant. He also claimed that the case against him was dubious.

On the other hand, the CBI said it needed no such sanction as it was acting on the court’s order to initiate an inquiry against Deshmukh.

The investigation agency pointed out that the Maharashtra government had also not challenged that registration of the FIR against Deshmukh but only opposed certain parts of it. “Hence, State is neither making a grievance of lack of sanction nor claiming that no offence has been made against the then Minister,” CBI said in the affidavit, according to Live Law.

The CBI told the court that Deshmukh’s petition was an abuse of the legal process, according to PTI. It added that granting relief to the former minister would hinder its investigation, which was at a crucial stage.

The investigation agency added that former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh’s letters to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about Deshmukh’s activities showed that a cognisable offence had been committed.

The case against Deshmukh

On March 20, Singh had accused Deshmukh of extorting money from bars, restaurants and hookah parlours in Mumbai. In his letter to Thackeray, Singh wrote that suspended police officer Sachin Vaze told him that Deshmukh had asked him to collect Rs 100 crore every month through illegal channels.

Vaze was suspended and sent into the custody of the National Investigation Agency for his alleged role in placing the explosives-laden vehicle at Carmichael Road, near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai, on March 15. Two days later, Singh, who was handling the investigation, was transferred from his position to the low-key Home Guard department by the state government. Singh had made the allegations after his transfer.

Though Deshmukh has constantly denied any impropriety, he resigned from the state Cabinet on April 5 after the Bombay High Court directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations against him. On April 8, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Maharashtra government and Deshmukh’s petitions to cancel the CBI inquiry against him.