The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday quizzed former Mumbai Police Commissioners Sanjay Pandey and Param Bir Singh in connection with a corruption case registered against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
In March this year, Pandey was questioned by the CBI for nearly six hours over the allegations of attempting to influence former commissioner Param Bir Singh to withdraw his complaint against Deshmukh while the Bombay High Court was hearing the case.
In April last year, Singh had written to the CBI alleging that a “malicious attempt” and “conspiracy to thwart the preliminary enquiry of CBI and attempt to tamper witness” was being made by the then acting DGP Sanjay Pandey. Pandey was conducting inquiries against Singh on the direction of the state government. Pandey later had recused himself from the enquiry he was conducting against Singh.
The central agency, in March this year, had also questioned Deshmukh inside Arthur Road jail, in connection with the corruption case. The CBI's move to question Deshmukh came after they had carried out searches at Nagpur and Mumbai at the premises of people, including chartered accountants linked with Deshmukh in February.
In October last year, the CBI had arrested one Santosh Jagtap, a resident of Thane in the corruption case. A Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) was also issued against him by the court. In August, a CBI team had conducted searches at Jagtap’s premises and had also seized Rs 9 lakh. The investigation had indicated that Jagtap played the role of a middleman in the transfer and postings of officials.
On April 21, last year, CBI had registered a corruption related case against Deshmukh and others under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and section of Prevention of Corruption Act for “attempt to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of public duty”.
In a letter written to the chief minister and others on March 20, last year, Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had instructed some Mumbai police officers, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect an amount of Rs 100 crore every month from bar owners in the city.
Enforcement Directorate (ED), who had later registered a money laundering case based on CBI's FIR, had claimed that on Deshmukh’s instructions, Vaze had called a meeting of some orchestra bar owners and demanded Rs 3 lakh each from them.
ED had also claimed in ITS charge sheet against Deshmukh's staffers Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde, that Vaze, had collected Rs 4.7 crore from orchestra bar owners between December 2020 and February 2021 and had handed over the extorted money to Shinde in two instalments.
