Anil Deshmukh's son gets bail in ED case

Mumbai: A special court on Monday granted bail in a money laundering case to former state minister Anil Deshmukh's son Hrishikesh Deshmukh. He was never arrested in the case and hence not in custody, this thus is a formal bail.

Hrishikesh's anticipatory bail had been pending before the court for over a year, which he had filed after the arrest of his father in November last year. He had recently withdrawn the plea stating that he intended to seek appropriate remedies.

He appeared before the court on Monday as the court had earlier summoned him after taking cognizance of the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) charge sheet. He had, however, not appeared along with other accused then as he was apprehending arrest and was under interim protection as a result of his anticipatory bail plea that was under hearing.

In his plea seeking bail through advocates Aniket Nikam and Inderpal Singh, he had sought relief on the grounds that he was never arrested by the agency and that both the charge sheets and the supplementary charge sheet have been filed by the ED. He also pointed out that his father who is the principal accused has been granted bail by the Bombay High Court in the case.

Mr Deshmukh said he had withdrawn the pre-arrest bail plea to avail appropriate remedies and is filing this plea for bail accordingly. He said that he belongs to a respectable family, has a clean record and that the accusations against him would be a subject matter of trial, which is likely to take long.

As per the ED case, he had sent amounts illegally obtained by his father, through hawala channels to shell companies and hence had taken part in money laundering. These amounts had reached a Nagpur-based educational trust run by the Deshmukh family, through these companies.