Mumbai A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) court on Monday reserved orders on the plea filed by former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh for permission to get admitted to a private hospital for treatment.
Claiming that he had a history of weak shoulder girdle with recurrent painful dislocations, Deshmukh has said in his application that he had a fall in Arthur Road jail and dislocated his shoulder. Besides, he had various spine and urine-related issues, for which he was admitted to JJ Hospital on April 2 and was “currently experiencing excruciating pains and medically advised to undergo the necessary surgery.” He claimed he also had heart-related ailments.
“The applicant states that he has been experiencing chest pains, breathlessness, heart problems with abnormal ECG findings, which indicate less blood supply to the heart…and a possibility of heart block episode,” said his plea and added that he also had “uncontrolled high blood pressure”.
It further stated that “the multitude of add-on medications and stress, related to the ongoing high blood pressure is worsening his Ischaemic heart disease and taking a severe toll on his health.” He also had post-Covid effects and harboured more heart issues after he contracted the infection in February 2021.
Deshmukh’s lawyer Aniket Nikam argued that Deshmukh is in acute pain and he needs to undergo the surgery. Further, he argued that it is his fundamental right. “It is not the case that Deshmukh will abscond. He will finish surgery and return to jail,” Nikam assured the court.
However, ED opposed the plea, claiming that Deshmukh had sought treatment in a private hospital primarily for his shoulder dislocation and also for Stress Thalium Test, which he was recommended in January by doctors at the JJ Hospital.
ED claimed that the case of Deshmukh is not of emergency and on inquiring with the JJ Hospital, they were informed that the state-run hospital had advanced technology for conducting shoulder-related surgeries. As regards the test, the agency said that the doctors informed them that it was a non-emergency test and can be conducted at KEM hospital.
Deshmukh was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2, 2021, on the allegations of money laundering. ED’s case against the NCP leader is based on the FIR registered by the CBI on April 21, 2021, based on the allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
In a letter written to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others on March 20, 2021, Singh alleged that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect an amount of ₹100 crore every month from Mumbai’s restaurants and bars.
ED claimed that Vaze had accordingly called a meeting of bar owners and between December 2020 and February 2021, collected ₹4.7 crore from the owners of orchestra bars in Mumbai and handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Deshmukh’s personal assistant Kundan Shinde.