A hearing on the remand application of Enforcement Directorate against Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde is underway in Special PMLA Court. The ED on Friday night had arrested personal assistant Kundan Shinde and personal secretary Sanjeev Palande of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, in connection with an alleged money laundering case registered against Deshmukh.
During the hearing, Sanjeev Palande's lawyer called ED 'a caged sparrow which only tweets and does nothing'. However, reacting to the remarks, ED's lawyer Gonzalves took serious offence and warned the defence lawyer to not indulge in personal comments. After objection Defence lawyer apologised for his comments and Judge also wanted him not to indulge in name-calling.
Further, Palande's lawyer said "This is an absolute cocks and bulls story" on ED's remand copy and case background. He questioned saying, "ED is an elite organization but they acted as local police. They raided Palande's residence yesterday and gave notice of Section 50 of PMLA and then took him along with them. What is this?"
While Kundan Shinde's lawyer Advocate Mehul Thakkar said, "Non-cooperation alone can't be a ground for remand in this case. The reason of arrest is also not fulfilled in the process adopted by ED (to this ED said they have gone all reasons for arrest as per Section 19)."
"There is nothing to show on record that Sachin Waze was in direct contact with Kundan Shinde except Waze's own statement and that can't rely fully on this," added," Kundan Shinde's lawyer.
The central agency had arrested Anil Deshnukh's personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde late last night after it carried out raids against them and Deshmukh in Mumbai and Nagpur.
The aides were brought to the ED office for questioning following the searches and arrested subsequently. They will be produced before a special court for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai on Saturday where the ED will seek their remand for custodial interrogation, officials said.
The ED case against Deshmukh and others was made out after the CBI first carried out a preliminary inquiry followed by a regular case being filed on the orders of the Bombay High Court.
However, Anil Deshmukh has sought a fresh date for appearance before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which had summoned him for questioning on Saturday in a money laundering case related to an alleged multi-crore bribery-cum-extortion racket that led to his resignation in April, officials said.
The 71-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was asked to depose before the investigating officer at the agency office in Ballard Estate here by 11 am, they said.
