Following allegations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and several summons to Anil Deshmukh, his counsel Adv Kamlesh Ghumre spoke to The Sunday Guardian exclusively and said that all the allegations by ED are completely baseless, and that the case filed is vague and concocted. He pointed to how one after another members of the family are being summoned—first it was Anil Deshmukh himself, then Hrishikesh Deshmukh and now Arti Deshmukh, wife of the former Maharashtra Home Minister—by Enforcement Directorate in connection with the alleged Rs 100 crore money laundering case in which the politician is being probed. Arti Deshmukh, 66, didn’t appear in front of the ED and has requested the ED to record her statement through audio-video visual mode like Anil Deshmukh, “Arti Deshmukh is homemaker and has no role in anything. Just becoming part of some Trust doesn’t mean that she’s involved in daily work of the Trust. She has no role in this case.” Ghumre said. Counsel Ghumre said that Vaze never met Anil Deshmukh at the private and individual level; they never knew each other and it was more of Parambir Singh’s connection with Vaze at the private and individual levels. After not appearing for three summons, Anil Deshmukh recently knocked the door of the apex court for not taking any coercive action against himself.
Deshmukh, via his lawyer, has spoken out to give his side of the story, maintaining that the Trust’s transactions are clear and the ED’s version of collection of money from bars and restaurants under instructions of Anil Deshmukh and via some shell companies to launder money back to his Trust, is too flimsy.
Asked about (now dismissed) police officer Sachin Waze’s confession that money was given to “number one” Anil Deshmukh, his lawyer said, “Everyone knows who is number one in the force, so it would be Waze’s boss and head which should be Parambir Singh, the Mumbai commissioner at that time.” Ghumre said that there are several cases against Parambir Singh and his works have been dubious in nature. In his letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after he was removed from the police commissioner’s post, Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had asked Sachin Waze to extort over Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. “Param Bir Singh’s allegations are not true. In fact, the High Court has questioned Singh why he was silent for months,” the lawyer said. The Bombay High Court has reserved the order on the plea seeking quashing of the FIR filed by the CBI. “We can expect the orders anytime,” he added.
Ghumre pointed out that the ED works under pressure; out of thousands of cases filed by the ED, only 10 or 12 cases are of conviction which tells it all. Asked about being so confident and still not appearing before officials and joining the probe, Ghumre said, “We have never said no to appear in front of the ED; we are ready via zoom or any audio visual mode that the agency is ready with. At a time when everything is happening virtually, why is it that the agency is stressing on physical appearance?”