The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to cancel the bail granted to former Maharashtra's former home minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh in the money laundering case lodged against him by Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court order which granted bail to Deshmukh.
The bench clarified that the observations made by the High Court will not influence the trial and are only confined to the issue of bail.
Enforcement Directorate has approached the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court's order granting bail to Deshmukh, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case.
On October 4, the Bombay High Court had granted bail to Deshmukh in a money laundering case being investigated by the ED.
The High Court had ordered that the bail order would be effective from October 13, in order to enable the ED to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
Deshmukh will continue to be lodged in judicial custody in Arthur Road prison as he is also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case.
Earlier, on Deshmukh's plea, the top court had directed the High Court to hear and decide expeditiously his bail plea.
The top court had expressed displeasure that the Bombay High Court has kept the bail application of Deshmukh pending for so many months and asked it to hear the plea of Deshmukh within this week and decide it expeditiously.
It had noted that Deshmukh's bail plea is pending in the High Court since March 21 and it observed that keeping bail applications pending for eight months is not in consonance with the jurisprudence of bail.
Deshmukh had sought bail from the High Court in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate after the Special Court declined his plea.
Deshmukh was arrested by the ED in November 2021 and is currently in judicial custody.
According to the ED, Deshmukh had misused his position as state home minister and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai through some police of officers.
( With inputs from ANI )
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