CBI probe continues against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh
Mumbai:
The CBI probe against former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh will continue, with the Supreme Court today rejecting the Maharashtra government’s request for a court-monitored probe. The Supreme Court said, ‘We will not even touch this matter.
The court’s decision is a major setback for the Maharashtra government, which has accused the Center of using agencies like the CBI to target its ministers and leaders.
The Maharashtra government had filed a petition seeking handing over of CBI’s anti-corruption probe against Anil Deshmukh to a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The plea said that the CBI probe may be biased as former Maharashtra police chief Subodh Kumar Jaiswal is now the head of the agency.
Anil Deshmukh, a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, is being probed for allegations of accepting bribes for police transfers and postings when he was Maharashtra’s home minister.
Subodh Jaiswal was part of the police establishment boards and supervised transfers and postings, the Maharashtra government said, adding that Mr Jaiswal “should be a witness if not a potential accused.”
But Judges SK Kaul and MM Sundaresh refused to step in and dismissed the petition.
In December, the Bombay High Court dismissed the Maharashtra government’s petition.