Mumbai court to pronounce verdict in default bail plea of Anil Deshmukh on July 11

A special CBI court in Mumbai on Thursday reserved its verdict in the plea filed by former Maharashtra State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh seeking default bail.The Court also reserved its order on similar pleas by Deshmukh's associates Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde. .Special Judge SH Gwalani after hearing the arguments at length said that the order would be passed at 11 am on July 11, Monday.Deshmukh and his associates are being investigated for alleged corruption between 2019 and 2021. Based on the findings of the preliminary investigation into a complaint by advocate Dr. Jaishri Patil, the CBI had charged Deshmukh and unknown others.The inquiry was launched after the Bombay High Court issued a direction to that effect on April 5, 2021, in response to a petition filed by Param Bir Singh, former Commissioner of Mumbai Police.Deshmukh was named in the FIR after an investigation, along with personal secretary Sanjeev Palande, personal assistant Kundan Shinde, and dismissed Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze, whose names were later added.Deshmukh and others were arrested for the first time in November 2021 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the same case, but for money laundering offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).They were later apprehended by the CBI in the first week of April this year.They were detained by the CBI until April 16, when they were transferred to judicial custody.They applied for default bail, claiming that the agency's chargesheet was incomplete and that the investigation was not completed.Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh informed the Court that the chargesheet contained the names of the accused, the provisions under which they were charged, lists of witnesses, articles and enclosures. According to him, the chargesheet was complete and he, therefore, argued that the question of default bail did not arise.He added that even if the right to default bail had accrued, it should have been filed before the chargesheet was filed."Assuming the right to default bail accrues then the date of filing the default bail is important. The default bail should have been filed before June 7 but here the default bail was filed on June 8. The Supreme Court says that the default bail should have been filed before the filing of charge-sheet. The accused cannot have right to file default bail indefinitely. It has to be filed before the filing of charge-sheet,” Singh said.Singh stated that a chargesheet based on the preliminary investigation has been filed, and that the agency will continue to investigate the case.Advocate Sairuchita Chowdhary, arguing for Palande, submitted that the 60th day since Palande’s arrest was June 2 and not June 4 or 5. She further added that the oral request for default bail was made on June 7 itself."That was the first instance of court reopening when the case came up for hearing. By the time when we made the submissions in court, they had still not submitted all relevant documents,” she said.Advocate Aniket Nikam for Deshmukh, pointed out that as per the FIR, the agency was supposed to look into three issues. The first was of extortion from orchestra bars and restaurants in Mumbai. The second was about the reinstatement of former Mumbai cop Sachin Waze, and how all high-profile cases being investigated by Mumbai police were turned over to him. Finally, there was the issue of police officer transfers.He claimed that the charge-sheet spoke only about the first issue and the other two were not investigated."Further investigation can only be done when there was initial investigation done earlier. In the garb of further investigation, they cannot do fresh investigation,” he argued.