Court grants bail to ex-Maha minister Anil Deshmukhs aide in corruption case

A special court on Friday granted bail to Kundan Shinde, an aide of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, in a corruption case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Special CBI judge S H Gwalani allowed the bail plea of Shinde, who worked as a personal assistant to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Deshmukh, his lawyer Aniket Nikam said.

Shinde walked out of Arthur Road Jail on Friday evening after being in judicial custody for more than one and half years.

In his bail plea filed before the special CBI court, Shinde claimed innocence and said that he was not involved in any activity or offence as alleged by the competent authority.

Shinde had been falsely implicated on circumstantial instances in the case, the plea stated, adding that the prosecutions case was “based on vague and incoherent facts”.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had in June 2021 arrested Shinde in connection with a money laundering case, and later the CBI took his custody in a corruption case.

A special PMLA court on Wednesday allowed Shindes bail plea in the money laundering case.

Other accused in the case include Anil Deshmukh and dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Waze. Deshmukh is out on bail, while Waze continues to be in judicial custody.

Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in March 2021 alleged that Deshmukh, the then home minister, had given a target to police officers to collect Rs 100 crore per month from restaurants and bars.

Former assistant police inspector Waze, who was arrested in the case of an explosives-laden vehicle found near industrialist Mukesh Ambanis house in Mumbai last year, had also levelled similar allegations.

The high court in April 2021 directed the CBI to carry out a preliminary inquiry.

Based on the inquiry, the central agency had registered an FIR against Deshmukh and others for alleged corruption and misuse of official power.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)