Bombay HC rejects anticipatory bail application of ‘brokers’ in Anil Deshmukh police transfer case – India Today

The Bombay High Court has rejected the anticipatory bail application of two men who are wanted by the CBI in the case against Anil Deshmukh, former home minister of Maharashtra. However, the court has extended the interim protection it had granted earlier for three weeks to facilitate these men to approach the Supreme Court. The anticipatory bail application of these two men was earlier rejected by the Mumbai sessions court as well.

The State Intelligence Commissioner, Rashmi Shukla in 2019, had conducted surveillance against the persons involved in the transfer of high ranking police officials. Accordingly, the State Intelligence Commissioner had submitted a report against unknown persons and therefore, mobile numbers were kept under tapping and surveillance by her. The confidential report dated Aug 20, 2020, submitted by Rashmi Shukla disclosed the name of these two men as brokers in dealing with the transfer of high ranking police officials in state of Maharashtra.

In the High Court, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh and Akshay Thakkar had vehemently opposed the anticipatory bail applications. They stated that during the course of the investigation, incriminating documents and materials in the form of lawfully intercepted conversations have been collected by the CBI against the men from the office of the ACP, Cyber Division of Mumbai Police and SID of Maharashtra Police. During the search, incriminating documents have also been recovered from their possession.

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Cook from Solapur

40-year-old Mahadeo Ingale had approached the High Court with the contention that the CBI had conducted raids at his residence at Solapur and Osmanabad. Ingle worked as a cook and a mess helper and later took up a job with a retired inspector general because of the whole he came in contact with many police officials.

In Aug 2021, notices under section 160 of Criminal Procedure of Code were issued by CBI to the accused pursuant to which they approached the Mumbai sessions court with an anticipatory bail application. Even in the lower court, the CBI lawyer CJ Nandode had argued that Ingale had been actively involved in managing the transfer and posting of various police officials of Maharashtra Police of different ranks in a clandestine manner in league with certain politicians, their personal staff and other unknown officials of the Home Department.

Nandode had said that as Ingale had not been cooperating with the investigation so the agency had made an application before the Court for issuance of the warrant against him. “Sincere efforts have been made by the CBI to arrest the applicant, however, he continues to evade the investigation and conceal himself from the CBI,” said Nandode. The agency had also moved an application for issuance of proclamation and the application was allowed by the court.

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Personal assistant of minister

35-year-old Bandenawaz Maner used to work as a personal assistant to a minister of Maharashtra and he was represented by advocate Rizwan Merchant who argued that the phone tapping was found to be illegal as Shukla had allegedly misused the permission granted for phone tapping certain persons and has intercepted the phone calls of other persons wherein there was no permission was accorded to intercept or make surveillance of the phones. Merchant said that the CBI had carried out a raid on Maner’s residence in Sangli in July 2021 and even at his sister’s residence in Panvel but nothing incriminating was recovered during the raid.

However, the CBI told the court that the investigation so far indicates that apart from others, the applicant had been actively involved in managing the transfer and posting of various police officials of Maharashtra Police in different ranks in a clandestine manner in league with certain politicians, their personal staff and other unknown officials of the Home Department. The forensic scrutiny of the mobile phone devices seized from the applicant also indicates that he was having contact with number of police personnel who have also been found to be figuring in the report of Shukla.

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