SC to hear plea against HC bail to Anil Deshmukh

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the Bombay High Court’s order granting bail to Maharashtra’s former home minister Anil Deshmukh on October 11.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit has directed the matter to be listed before a bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud on Tuesday, as his bench had earlier heard Anil Deshmukh’s matter. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for ED mentioned the matter for urgent hearing before the apex court.

On October 4, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Deshmukh, who was arrested in a money laundering case being investigated by the ED.

The High Court had ordered that the bail order would be effective from October 13, in order to enable the ED to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Deshmukh will continue to be lodged in judicial custody in Arthur Road prison as he is also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case.

Earlier, on Deshmukh’s plea, the top court had directed the High Court to hear and decide expeditiously his bail plea.

Justice Chandrachud had expressed displeasure that the Bombay High Court has kept the bail application of Deshmukh pending for so many months and asked it to hear the plea of Deshmukh within this week and decide it expeditiously.

The apex court had noted that Deshmukh’s bail plea is pending in the High Court since March 21 and observed that keeping bail applications pending for eight months is not in consonance with the jurisprudence of bail.

Deshmukh had sought bail from the High Court in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate after the Special Court declined his plea.

Deshmukh was arrested by the ED in November 2021 and is currently in judicial custody.

According to the ED, Deshmukh had misused his position as state home minister and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai through some police officers.