CBI FIR intended to give material to Opposition to destabilise govt: State to Bombay HC

The Maharashtra government recently moved the Bombay High Court seeking directions to set aside two “unnumbered paragraphs” from the corruption FIR registered by the CBI on April 21 against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh.

The Maharashtra government recently moved the Bombay High Court seeking directions to set aside two “unnumbered paragraphs” from the corruption FIR registered by the CBI on April 21 against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh other unknown persons.

One of these paragraphs stated that “the central agency in its Preliminary Enquiry (PE) had found that former state home minister Anil Deshmukh was aware of the reinstatement of now suspended assistant police inspector (API) Sachin Waze into the police after 15 years and sensitive and sensational cases being given to Waze for investigation”.

Waze is being probed by the NIA for his alleged role in the Ambani house terror scare case and the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.

The second “unnumbered” stated that Deshmukh and others exercised “undue influence” over the transfer and postings of police officers as alleged by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

The state government maintained that it does not want to interfere in the CBI probe against Deshmukh and others beyond these two allegations, which were not mandated to be investigated as per the April 5 HC order.

The plea filed on April 30 said, “This act of respondent CBI clearly demonstrates that the registration of FIR on these impugned issues clearly demonstrates malafide. This is clearly intended to carry out fishing and roving inquiry into the administration of the state government in order to try and find out some material enabling political groups that are presently not in power in the petitioner state to try and destabilize the present government in Maharashtra.”

The plea added that filing FIR in respect of these two matters without consent of state was “flagrant violation” of the law, as the CBI is trying to initiate inquiry into transfers and postings of officers by the government. It said that the same was “to protect selected few persons” and therefore, “unauthorised and unsustainable”.

The CBI had initiated a probe against Deshmukh after the HC, on April 5, directed it to carry out a PE into Singh’s corruption allegations against the former minister.

Three days after he was removed as Mumbai Police Commissioner and posted to the Home Guards, Singh, on March 20, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Deshmukh asked suspended and arrested assistant police inspector Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month, including Rs 40-50 crore from 1,750 bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

The state said that CBI introduced these two issues beyond the HC directive and the same were not even referred to in Singh’s letter dated March 20 and/or in the complaint filed by lawyer Jaishri Patil at Malabar Hill Police station, based on Singh’s letter, which was referred to by HC while ordering PE.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Deshmukh also approached the HC with a writ petition challenging the FIR against him.

HC will hear the pleas in due course.

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