The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 16 attached immovable assets worth Rs 4.20 crore belonging to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and his family under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a corruption case.
The attached assets include one residential flat located in Mumbai’s Worli valued at Rs 1.54 crore, 25 land parcels located at Dhutum villages in Uran, Raigarh district of Maharashtra, which have a book value of Rs 2.67 crore, the ED informed.
They said a provisional attachment order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The development comes weeks after the central probing agency had summoned the 71-year-old former Maharashtra minister for a hearing of the money laundering case.
It comes as a major blow to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, as Deshmukh belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is one of its alliance partners.
Anil Deshmukh had to resign from his post as Maharashtra home minister after he was named in a Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket involving the Maharashtra Police. Sacked police officer Sachin Vaze had claimed that he had to extort Rs 4.70 crore from Mumbai bars at the behest of the NCP leader.
The ED had last month arrested Deshmukh's personal secretary Sanjeev Palande (51) and personal assistant Kundan Shinde (45) after it carried out raids against them and the NCP leader in Mumbai and Nagpur on Friday.
The ED's case against Deshmukh and others was made out after the Central Bureau of Investigation (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 CBI to look into the allegations of bribery made against Deshmukh by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
Deshmukh, who resigned from his post in April following the allegations, has denied any wrongdoing.
(With agency inputs)
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