The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday raided the premises of former Maharashtra Cabinet minister Anil Deshmukh in Nagpur at his ancestral village. Two teams are carrying out the raids. Deshmukh has been served three summons by the ED. Assets of Deshmukh and his wife assets worth Rs 4.2 crore were attached three days ago under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A Nagpur-based educational trust Sai Shikshan Sanstha trust was used to convert tainted money into untainted money, it alleged. The ED is investigating a land worth Rs 300 crore in Raigad belonging to Anil Deshmukh's company.
Around 7am on Sunday morning, six ED sleuths accompanied by a team of armed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) reached Deskhmukh’s two houses and started a search operation. A few days ago, one residential flat owned by Deshmukh in Mumbai’s Worli, valued at ₹1.54 crore, and 25 land parcels in Dhutum villages in Raigarh district of Maharashtra, book value ₹2.67 crore, were attached by the ED. Former Mumbai police commissioner Parambir Singh had alleged that as a minister in the Maharashtra government, Deshmukh had asked suspended police officer Sachin Vaze and few others to extort ₹100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. Post the allegations, the Bombay high court ordered a preliminary enquiry by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). The agency later registered an FIR against Deshmukh in April this year.