Justice (retired) KU Chandiwal Commission was not set up under the Commission of Enquiry Act, 1952 and therefore, there would be no legal sanctity to the depositions made before it, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said in its affidavit opposing the bail plea of former home minister Anil Deshmukh.
The HC on October 4 granted bail to Deshmukh in the money-laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 11 last year. The order was confirmed by the Supreme Court on October 12.
The 73-year-old Nationalist Congress Party leader has moved the special CBI court for bail, relying on depositions of witnesses, including former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and dismissed police officer Sachin Waze. Singh, on the basis of whose complaint the corruption-cum-extortion case was registered, and Waze, who purportedly extorted money from bar owners on behalf of Deshmukh, took a U-turn before the commission.
The Central agency, who filed the affidavit on Friday, said the Bombay high court had taken note of the Maharashtra government resolution setting up the commission to probe Singh’s allegations against the former minister and said that it was not under the Commission of Enquiry Act.
“Assuming without admitting that the commission was duly constituted, the statements of the deponents cannot be used contrary to provisions of section 6 of the Act,” the affidavit said.
The CBI has also controverted Deshmukh’s claim that Waze extorted the money for Singh, and not for Deshmukh. It claimed that some police officers, including Waze, had in their statements to the CBI said that the term, “HM Sir”, was referred to then home minister Deshmukh.
The court has set October 18 as the next date of hearing.
Deshmukh was first arrested by the ED on November 2, 2021. Its case is based on the FIR registered by the CBI on April 21 that year. In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others on March 20, 2021, Singh alleged that Deshmukh had instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore every month from restaurants and bars.
The ED claimed Vaze had called a meeting of bar owners, and between December 2020 and February 2021, collected ₹4.7 crore and handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Deshmukh’s personal assistant Kundan Shinde.