1. Home
2. India

Anil Deshmukh's bail plea rejected by PMLA court

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 1/19/2022 12:44:13 PM

Mumbai, Jan 18 The special court under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in the money-laundering case against him. In the plea filed through Aniket Nikam, Deshmukh had stated that since no cognisance of the chargesheet was taken by the special court within the statutory period of 60 days as prescribed under Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), he was entitled to statutory bail. The cognisance of the chargesheet, which was filed in December 2021, has not yet been taken by the court. Deshmukh's counsel Vikram Chaudhri had argued that excluding the date of the first remand, a period of 60 days had elapsed and a statutory embargo was created on any further custody as per Section 167. Chaudhri claimed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had extended Deshmukh's judicial remand on December 27, 2021, till January 9, 2022 without disclosing the above fact, which he added was non-est in law. Meanwhile, the ED in its reply through advocate Shreeram Shirsat had stated that statutory bail cannot be considered by the court once a chargesheet and/or supplementary chargesheet had been filed. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh had argued that the supplementary chargesheet against Deshmukh had been filed on December 29, 2021, which was within the 60-day period when counted from the date of arrest, ie, November 2, 2021. The question of cognisance is irrelevant for ascertaining right of default bail since Section 167(2) only pertains to completion of investigation within stipulated time, he had contended. Deshmukh has been in judicial custody since November 15, 2021 in connection with the probe initiated by the ED after the Central Bureau of Investigation, filed an FIR following a court-directed enquiry into allegations of corruption and misuse of his official.