A source in the agency said that the financial probe agency has summoned him to record his statement on July 5 in an alleged multi-crore bribery-cum-extortion racket that led to his resignation in April.
Earlier, he was asked to appear before the probe agency sleuth on June 29 but he skipped and sought exemption from personnel appearance before the ED citing Covid-19 pandemic and age-related ailments.
He also said that he was ready to get his statement recorded on audio/visual mode of any nature of the probe agency’s choice.
The 71-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader also said that he would furnish all information and documents sought by the ED after the agency provided him a copy of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed by it in the case. He further mentioned that the ED summons "do not clarify" the purpose of his personal appearance before it.
On June 26, the ED arrested Deshmukh's personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde in connection with this alleged bribery cum extortion case.
ED had said that over Rs 4 crore collected from bar owners between December 2020 and February 2021 was routed to Deshmukh's charitable trust in Nagpur, through four shell companies in Delhi.
