Sanjay Pandey, the Mumbai Police Commissioner, is being investigated by the CBI in a corruption case involving Anil Deshmukh

The CBI interviewed Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey on Friday as part of its investigation into former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh's involvement in a corruption case. "Pandey was interrogated for about six hours over charges that he tried to persuade former commissioner Param Bir Singh to drop his complaint against Deshmukh while the Bombay High Court was hearing the matter," a CBI official said.

 

Deshmukh was questioned by a CBI team inside Arthur Road jail earlier this month in connection with the agency's corruption probe against him. Between March 3 and March 5, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court permitted the CBI to examine Deshmukh, who was being held at Arthur Road jail, in the presence of a jail official.

 

The CBI's decision to examine Deshmukh came after searches of people's homes in Nagpur, Mumbai, including chartered accountants linked to Deshmukh, were conducted last month. The CBI detained Santosh Jagtap, a Thane resident, in a corruption case in October of last year. The court also issued a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) against him. Jagtap's facilities were searched by a CBI team in August, and Rs 9 lakh was taken. According to the investigation, Jagtap acted as a middleman in the transfer and posting of officials.

 

On April 21, last year, the CBI filed a corruption case against Deshmukh and others, alleging "effort to earn undue advantage for the inappropriate and dishonest performance of public duty" under IPC sections connected to criminal conspiracy and section of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

 

Deshmukh had asked some Mumbai police personnel, including fired assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect Rs 100 crore every month from bar owners in the city, according to a letter submitted to the chief minister and others on March 20, last year. On Deshmukh's orders, Vaze convened a conference of orchestra bar owners and demanded Rs 3 lakh apiece, according to the Enforcement Directorate, which later lodged a money laundering case based on the CBI's FIR.

 

 

Image Courtesy: Twitter @HTMumbai