Ex-Maharashtra’s Home Minister Anil Deshmukh again sent to ED custody

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Sunday set aside a Special PMLA Court order granting 14 days' judicial custody to former home minister Anil Deshmukh and remanded him back to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for five days.

Vacation Judge Justice MJ Jamdar on Sunday passed an order in response to an urgent plea filed by the ED, challenging Special Court Judge PR Sitre's ruling on Saturday, declining the agency's plea for extension of Deshmukh's custody by nine more days.

Deshmukh's lawyers Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhri and Aniket Nikam submitted to the court that without getting into merits or maintainability of the ED application, they were volunteering cooperation and not shying away from the investigation and hence, not objecting to the further remand.

ED's lawyers, Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh and Advocate Shreeram Shirsat argued in the Bombay High Court that they were not granted further custody by the Special PMLA Court, thus denial of sufficient and adequate opportunity to probe the case having serious ramifications and when the investigations are at a crucial state. (UNI)