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MUMBAI: Moving ahead in its probe in the money laundering case involving former Maharashtra Home Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday summoned his son Hrishikesh Deshmukh for questioning.
An ED source told The New Indian, “We have summoned Hrishikesh to depose before us for questioning today.” Also Read: In Punjab, Sidhu vs CM Round 2 Begins Over Advocate General
The development comes a day after the Bombay High Court granted ED custody of Deshmukh for six days till November 12.
Deshmukh was sent to 14-day judicial custody on Saturday by a Special PMLA court. The ED through its counsel challenged the judicial custody in the High Court which set aside the order of the lower court.
Deshmukh was arrested by ED on the intervening night of November 1 and 2 after questioning him for over 12 hours.
The NCP Leader had earlier skipped five summons of the ED. His son Hrishikesh had also skipped the summon of ED in August this year.
Deshmukh has been allegedly accused of money-laundering, and the matter is being probed by the ED for the alleged extortion from a bunch of orchestra bars in Mumbai.
It has been alleged that Rs 4.7 crore was collected as “extortion” from the orchestra bars by now dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze allegedly on Deshmukh’s instructions. Later, this amount was transferred to Deshmukh’s Nagpur-based educational trust by his son, Hrishikesh.
According to the allegation, the transaction was routed via two hawala operators and was shown as a “donation”.
The 71-year-old NCP leader is the president of the trust and his two sons, Salil and Hrishikesh, are trustees.
On May 11, a case was registered against the former Minister and on June 25, the ED raided Deshmukh’s residences in Nagpur, Mumbai, and three other places.
In April, the CBI had conducted raids at four premises of Deshmukh after registering an FIR against him in connection with the case.
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had, in his letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had alleged that Deshmukh had indulged in “malpractices” and asked Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month.
