Anil Deshmukh row: CBI team reaches Mumbai to initiate preliminary enquiry against him

New Delhi: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh resigned on "moral grounds" soon after the Bombay High Court directed a CBI probe into the allegations of corruption levelled against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which would conduct a preliminary enquiry into allegations of corruption levelled against Anil Deshmukh, will visit Mumbai on Tuesday.

A CBI source related to the development told IANS on Monday that "a half-dozen member team of CBI will visit Mumbai to initiate the probe". The source further added that the team of CBI officers will record the statement of several officers of Mumbai Police including Singh, who made serious allegations against Deshmukh.

Param Bir Singh had sought a thorough probe by the CBI into his allegations that Deshmukh had asked arrested Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze "to collect" Rs 100 crore per month. Singh also challenged his own (Singh) transfer to Commandant General, Home Guards.

Normally, the CBI waits for a formal order and a legal opinion before initiating any action in such cases but given the short period of 15 days granted by the high court to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the allegations, the CBI has taken swift action, officials told PTI.

The team will first meet lawyers to collect the order, complaint along with annexure and other related documents to start the probe.

Earlier on Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said this was an "extraordinary" and "unprecedented" case that warranted an independent inquiry.

In its 52-page judgement, the HC bench said Singh's allegations against Deshmukh had put at stake the citizen's faith in the state police, adding that such allegations, made by a serving police officer, against the state home minister could not be left unattended.

(With Agency Inputs)

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