The Bombay High Court granted bail to former Maharashtra home minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Deshmukh won't be able to leave jail, though, as the high court has suspended the judgment for 10 days in order to give the CBI time to appeal it to the Supreme Court. After hearing from both sides, Justice M. S. Karnik's single bench granted Deshmukh's request for bail.
He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai. Deshmukh, 74, had approached the high court after a special CBI court rejected his bail plea last month. He sought bail both on medical grounds as well as on merits.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader has been in jail since November last year after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
This year, in April, he was arrested by the CBI in the corruption case. He was granted bail by the high court last month in the ED case. Deshmukh's bail plea in the corruption case was, however, rejected by the special CBI court noting that there was prima facie evidence against him.
In March 2021, IPS officer Param Bir Singh claimed that Deshmukh, the home minister at the time, had set a goal for police officials to collect £10 million from Mumbai's eateries and bars each month. In April 2021, the high court ordered the CBI to conduct a preliminary investigation into Deshmukh. The CBI subsequently registered an FIR against Deshmukh and his associates for alleged corruption and misuse of official power.
