Anil Deshmukh, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a former minister of the Maharashtra Home Department, was given a waiver of his bail terms on Tuesday by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai regarding an alleged 100 crore extortion case.
Deshmukh has been given permission to travel to Nagpur and other domestic locations up till June 18, 2023, while he is on conditional bail in the PMLA case that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed.
The Bombay High Court granted conditional bail to the former minister on December 12 in exchange for a Rs 1 lakh bond after he was arrested in connection with an alleged Rs 100 crore extortion case. He was prohibited from leaving Mumbai without the court's prior approval, under the bail order. The special court has now changed the terms of his release and given him permission to leave Mumbai under specific restrictions.
Deshmukh must pay a sum of one lakh rupees as a surety before departing from Mumbai, per the court order. He won't handle the paperwork or get involved in the NGO's operations where he served as an office bearer and is suspected of having participated in money laundering from there. The judgement additionally stipulated that he will give the ED advance notice of his entire travel plan before departing Mumbai.
Deshmukh was detained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in November 2021. According to the report, he had abused his authority as the state's home minister by using some police officers to steal Rs 4.70 crore from several Mumbai bars. After being granted conditional bail in the case by the Bombay High Court on December 28, former Deshmukh showed up at the CBI headquarters in the Bombay Kurla Complex on January 3.
Deshmukh was given bail on the terms that he must help with the inquiry and cannot leave Mumbai without the trial court's prior approval. "I went to the CBI office to sign in in compliance with the directions given by the high court when granting bail. I am adhering to the court's directives," the minister earlier said.
He has previously disputed the accusations and said they lacked merit. Deshmukh said before that "Param Bir Singh (the then-Mumbai Police commissioner) stated that the accusations against me were based on hearsay and that he had no evidence against me."
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