Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 25 : A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai on Tuesday granted relaxation in bail conditions to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra Home Minister l Deshmukh in an alleged 100-crore extortion case.
Deshmukh who is out on conditional bail in the PMLA case registered by Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been granted permission to travel to Nagpur and other places within the country till 18th June 2023.
The former minister, booked in connection with an alleged Rs 100-crore extortion case, was granted conditional bail by the Bombay High Court on December 12 on a bond of Rs 1 lakh. According to the bail order, he was not supposed to leave Mumbai without prior permission of the Court.
Now, the special court modified his bail conditions and granted him permission to travel outside Mumbai on certain conditions.
According to the court order, Deshmukh will deposit an amount of 1 lakh rupees as surety before travelling out from Mumbai. He will not handle the documents or involve himself in the functioning of the NGO where he was an office bearer and was allegedly involved in Money laundering from there.
The order further stated that he would share the full itinerary of his travel with ED in advance before leaving Mumbai.
Deshmukh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in November 2021, which stated that he had misused his position as state home minister and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai through some police officers.
On January 3, former Deshmukh appeared at the CBI office in Bombay Kurla Complex after being granted conditional bail by the Bombay High Court in the case on December 28.
Among the bail conditions imposed by the HC was that Deshmukh cannot leave Mumbai without the prior approval of the trial court and must cooperate with the investigation.
"In accordance with instructions given by the high court while granting bail, I came to the CBI office to register my attendance. I am following the instructions of the court," the minister told earlier.
He had previously denied the allegations against him, claiming they were baseless.
"Param Bir Singh (then Mumbai Police commissioner), in an affidavit submitted in court, stated that the accusations against me were based on hearsay and that he had no evidence against me," Deshmukh said earlier.
He said, "Param Bir Singh and Sachin Vaze (Mumbai Ex-cop) made false allegations and I had to stay in jail."
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