Top NCP leaders, including Supriya Sule, state chief Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, Chhaghan Bhujbal and others gathered outside the Arthur Road jail to welcome Ex-Maharashtra minister Anil Deskmukh.
Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh walked out of Mumbai jail on Wednesday after spending almost 13 months in prison in a money laundering case.
Anil Deshmukh was held by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2, 2021 after a marathon questioning session of over 12 hours.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was released after he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court, which rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation’s plea seeking another extension on the stay to Deshmukh’s bail order.
“I have full faith in the judiciary the high court has observed that I was implicated in a false case,” news agency PTI quoted Anil Deshmukh as saying after coming out of the Mumbai jail.
NCP leaders, waiting outside the jail, said that Anil Deshmukh has spent more than a year in jail and none of the charges leveled against him could be proved in court.
High Court Justice MS Karnik had granted bail to the 73-year-old politician on December 12, but stayed the order for ten days as the CBI sought time to challenge it in the Supreme Court.
However, the probe agency’s plea would be heard only in January 2023 as the apex court is closed for vacation.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that Anil Deshmukh, the then home minister in Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, had given a target to police officers to collect Rs 100 crore per month from restaurants and bars in Mumbai.
