Mumbai: In a surprise development, former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at their office in Ballard Estate area in connection with a PMLA case against him.
The ED officials said the agency will record the statement of the 71-year-old NCP leader under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the criminal investigation being carried out by it in the alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket in the Maharashtra Police establishment that led to Deshmukh's resignation in April.
The development came a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation nabbed a middleman Santosh Jagtap from Thane who was an alleged conduit in the corruption deals and evading arrest.
"I respect the courts... I have voluntarily decided to come to the ED for the probe. But I want to ask where is Param Bir Singh who levelled the false allegations against me," said Deshmukh in a recorded statement before he went to the central agency accompanied by his lawyer.
A senior Nationalist Congress Party leader, Deshmukh, 71, came under a cloud last April after Singh's letter to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that he (Deshmukh) had set a Rs 100-crore collection target for the former dismissed cop, Sachin Vaze.