‘Serious allegations’: SC dismisses pleas challenging probe against Anil Deshmukh

Updated : April 08, 2021 05:10 PM IST

The top court observed that nothing is wrong in a preliminary enquiry when serious allegations are made by a senior officer against a senior minister

Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the pleas filed by the Maharashtra government and its former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh challenging the Bombay High Court order directing a CBI probe into allegations of corruption levelled against him by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

"Looking at the personas involved and nature of allegations and seriousness of allegations, it requires investigation by an independent agency. It is a matter of public confidence," a bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and Hemant Gupta said.

We don't want to interfere with the orders of the high court directing preliminary inquiry by CBI, the bench said. It is only a preliminary enquiry, nothing is wrong in it when serious allegations are made by senior officer against a senior minister, the bench said when counsel for Deshmukh alleged that oral allegations were made without any substance and a CBI probe was ordered without hearing him.

Maharashtra Government and Deshmukh on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order.

On Monday, Anil Deshmukh resigned as the Home Minister of Maharashtra. Senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil was on Monday given the charge of Maharashtra Home department following the resignation of Anil Deshmukh.In his resignation letter to Maharashtra CM, Anil Deshmukh said he doesn't find it morally correct to continue as the Home Minister after the Bombay High Court's order.

The Bombay High Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a preliminary inquiry within 15 days into corruption allegations levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh against Deshmukh.

Earlier, Param Bir Singh claimed that Deshmukh had asked police officers, including suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, to collect Rs 100 crore each month from bars and restaurants.

Waze was arrested earlier this month by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the case of a bomb scare near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in Mumbai. Singh was shifted from the post of Mumbai's Commissioner of Police to the Home Guards department on March 17.

(With inputs from PTI)

Published : April 08, 2021 04:34 PM IST

‘Serious allegations’: SC dismisses pleas challenging probe against Anil Deshmukh

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