Former Maha Home Minister skips ED summons again

New Delhi, June 29: Maharashtra's former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has once again skipped the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case.

In a letter to the ED, he expressed his inability to appear before it in person due to the ongoing pandemic. He has asked the ED to record his statements through audio visual medium medium of their choice.

"I am a septuagenarian, about 72 years of age, suffering from various comorbidities including hypertension and cardiac problems etc. I have already exposed my person to some extent on June 25 in my long interaction with you spanning over several hours during the course of the search and recording my statement. Thus, it may not be prudent or desirable to appear in person today and I am sending my authorised representative," Deshmukh wrote in a letter to the ED.

He also said he would furnish all documents and information sought by the ED after he gets the Enforcement Case Information Report filed by the agency. He also said that the ED had not clarified the purpose of his personal appearance.

Following searches at his Nagpur residence last week, the ED had summoned Deshmukh. He had however sought more time to appear before the agency, following which the ED issued fresh summons for him to appear before it on June 29 at 11 am.

The ED case against Anil Deshmukh and others was made out after the CBI first carried out a preliminary inquiry followed by a regular case being filed on the orders of the Bombay High Court.

The court had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI to look into the allegations of bribery made against Deshmukh by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

Anil Deshmukh, who had resigned from his post in April following the allegations, has denied any wrongdoing.

Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Param Bir Singh was removed from his post after investigators revealed the role of assistant police inspector Sachin Waze in the stationing of an explosive-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai residence that triggered a terror scare.