Maharashtra / ED attaches Anil Deshmukh's assets worth over ₹4 crore

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached assets worth ₹4.20 crore linked to former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and others in a money laundering case. The agency had earlier summoned him thrice for recording his statement, but he did not join the probe in person.

The attached assets are held in the name of Mr. Deshmukh’s wife, Aarti Deshmukh, and the company Premier Port Links Private Limited. They include a residential flat in Mumbai’s Worli area, and 25 land parcels worth ₹2.67 crore on paper, located in Raigarh, Maharashtra.

The ED probe is based on a First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Mr. Deshmukh and others, following a directive from the Bombay High Court.

It is alleged that they used improper means for collection of funds from various bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai “to achieve the target of ₹100 crore per month”.

According to the ED, Mr. Deshmukh — while working as the Home Minister in the Maharashtra government — received illegal gratification of about ₹4.70 crore in cash from various orchestra bar owners, through Sachin Vaze, then Assistant Police Inspector in the Mumbai Police.

“Further, with the help of Delhi-based dummy companies, the Deshmukh family laundered the tainted money of ₹4.18 crore and projected it as untainted by showing the same as amount received in the Trust named Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha,” said the agency in a statement on Friday.

The Worli flat, which has been attached by the agency, is registered in the name of Ms. Aarti Deshmukh. The agency alleged that the entire payment for the flat was made through cash in 2004, but the sale deed was prepared in February 2020 when Mr. Deshmukh was the Maharashtra Home Minister.

The Deshmukh family acquired 50% ownership in Premier Port Links Private Limited, including its assets, that is, land and shops, totally having a book value of about ₹5.34 crore by merely paying an amount of ₹17.95 lakh, that too after a substantial gap, alleged the ED.