ED issues lookout notice against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh

In a breaking development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a lookout notice against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in connection to the money laundering case, as per sources. With the lookout notice issued, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader cannot leave the country.

As per reports, the former minister has evaded five summons issued by ED to appear before it and cooperate in the investigation. In an attempt to quash summons against Deshmukh, his lawyers had approached the Bombay High Court.

The ED had registered a money laundering case against Deshmukh in May based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Deshmukh's lawyer bribed CBI sleuth with iPhone 12 Pro

Anil Deshmukh's advocate Anand Daga allegedly bribed a CBI inspector with an iPhone 12 Pro and expensive gifts to get investigation details of the former minister's extortion case. Both Daga and Tiwari have been arrested by the central agency.

According to the FIR against Tiwari, "Anand Daga is the advocate of Anil Deshmukh, the then Home Minister of Maharashtra, an accused in the CBI case. Abhishek Tiwari had visited Pune in connection with the investigation of the instant case. It has been learnt that Advocate Anand Daga met Abhishek Tiwari and handed over an iPhone 12 Pro as illegal gratification to him in lieu of passing details regarding the said enquiry and the investigation, thereby causing improper performance of public duty."

The FIR also mentioned that the sub-inspector received illegal gratification from Daga at "regular intervals." Abhishek Tiwari, who was assisting the Enquiry Officer in preparing the case report, was in possession of case-sensitive documents.

Later, Tiwari came in contact with Daga and was in regular touch with him. He had allegedly shared copies of the memorandum of proceedings, seizure memos, statements with Deshmukh's advocate through WhatsApp.

CBI report leak

An internal confidential report, which was leaked earlier, suggested that the Investigation Officer (IO) had said said "no cognisable offence has been committed by Anil Deshmukh." The CBI, however, denied giving clean chit to Deshmukh.

The central agency, in a statement, had said, "It may be recalled that the Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Bombay had ordered the registration of a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) in the said matter based on several PILs filed before the Hon'ble High Court. On completion of this PE, the competent authority directed registration of a regular case based on evidence collected during PE and the legal opinion. The FIR registered by CBI on 21.04.2021 has been available on the CBI website since 24.04.2021".