New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Bombay High Court to hear and decide expeditiously the bail plea of Maharashtra’s former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli expressed displeasure that the Bombay High Court has kept the bail application of Deshmukh pending for so many months and asked it to hear the plea of Deshmukh within this week and decide it expeditiously. The apex court noted that Deshmukh’s bail plea is pending in the High Court since March 21 and observed that keeping bail applications pending for eight months is not in accordance with the jurisprudence of bail.
In its order, the bench said, “Any person who has filed a bail application has a legitimate expectation that his plea will be disposed of at an early date. Keeping an application for bail pending is inconsistent with the Right to Life under Article 21. We issue a direction and permit the petitioner to apply before the judge to whom the case has been assigned tomorrow. The application shall be taken for hearing during the course of this week and decided expeditiously.”
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Justice NJ Jamadar of the High Court was hearing the bail plea of Deshmukh.
Deshmukh had sought bail from the High Court in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate after the Special Court declined his plea.
Deshmukh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in November 2021 and is currently in judicial custody.
According to the ED, Deshmukh had misused his position as state home minister and collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bars in Mumbai through some police officers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by HW News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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