Ex-Maha HM Deshmukh sent to 14 days judicial custody

A Special PMLA Court on Monday sent Maharashtra ex-home minister Anil Deshmukh to 14 days' judicial custody, two weeks after his remand with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) ended.
Special PMLA Court Judge H.S. Satbhai also permitted a bed and prescribed medicines to Deshmukh,72, given his advanced age and health conditions, though the ED's Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar opposed the demand.

The senior Nationalist Congress Party leader was arrested early on November 2 in connection with a money-laundering case filed by the ED and has since been in the agency's custody.

The ED's case followed a corruption FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh - currently 'missing' - wrote a letter in March accusing Deshmukh of allegedly asking a sacked cop Sachin Vaze to collect Rs 100 crore from Mumbai hoteliers between December 2020 and February 2021.

The Special Judge Satbhai heard Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar and Deshmukh lawyers Inderpal Singh and Aniket Nikam, and after the ED did not seek further remand, ordered judicial custody for the NCP leader.-IANS