Nagpur/Mumbai: For the second time in 60 days, the Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted a search operation at the house of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who is facing allegations of corruption and misconduct.
The raids were carried out in at least four locations including the Nagpur and Mumbai residences as part of the probe.
The money-laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Deshmukh was lodged in May even as the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi slammed the Centre and Bharatiya Janata Party.
The senior NCP leader had quit his post after former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, levelling allegations of corruption against him.
Earlier on April 24, around 10 locations of Deshmukh in multiple cities were raided by the ED on April 24 and he was detained for several hours after he was booked.
Prior to that, on April 6, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a preliminary enquiry following a Bombay High Court order asking the agency to probe the allegations of corruptions.
Soon after the dawn raids started, Congress Spokesperson Sachin Sawant in a sharp attack sought to know "what the ED is trying to search while raiding the residence of Anil Deshmukh" since both Param Bir Singh and sacked cop Sachin Vaze "never said the money was given".
"If the ED feels that money was given, why no raids on Vaze and Singh who supposedly gave the money? Sad state of Democracy We must save Democracy," said Sawant.
NCP MP Supriya Sule said that while the entire state government is working round-the-clock to tackle the challenges of the upcoming Covid-19 'third wave', the Centre is letting loose central agencies to pursue 'vendetta politics' against the Opposition.
In Nagpur, a large group of NCP activists lodged strong protests and raised slogans against the BJP and the Centre for "blatantly misusing" central probe agencies like ED, CBI, NIA, etc. to hound opposition leaders.