Mumbai: An incharge court on Wednesday denied former state home minister Anil Deshmukh permission to have home food in prison stating that his is not a fit case to extend the facility.
Deshmukh had said through his advocates in his application seeking the facility that he is 72-year-old and suffers from heart and other ailments. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), the prosecuting agency in the case, did not oppose his application and had left the decision to the court. The jail administration had opposed the application and said that as per amended provisions of the Jail Manual, home food is not allowed to the detainees and that it is providing a balanced diet including breakfast, eggs, banana, chapati, sprouts and green vegetables.
The Nationalist Congress Party’s senior leader had also produced medical papers in support of his application. The court noted that the medical papers date to two days in June and that, thereafter, till his arrest in November, no medical papers have been produced. Additional Sessions Judge GB Gurao also noted that the medical papers showed that a cardiologist had suggested some tests, but it seems they were not conducted by Deshmukh. “It appears that after June 18, 2021, the applicant has not conducted any tests. No medical papers are produced to that effect,” the court said. It stated that though it has the power to allow home food, considering the facts of the case, it does not find the case a fit one to permit the facility.
The politician was arrested in a money laundering case in early November. The case arose out of allegations of corruption against him by the then city police chief in a letter to the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. The CBI had registered a case after a preliminary inquiry. The ED case looks into the money laundering aspect of the offence.
