Anil Deshmukh grilled by CBI over corruption charges levelled by Param Bir Singh

Former Maharashtra home minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday appeared before the CBI in connection with the corruption charges levelled by senior IPS officer and former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

Singh, currently the commandant general of Home Guards, has alleged that Deshmukh had fixed Rs 100 crore per month as a collection target for assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze.

Deshmukh (70) was seen entering the DRDO & IAF guest house at Kalina in Mumbai.

After hearing a bunch of petitions, a bench of the Bombay High Court comprising chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni on April 5 has asked the CBI to carry out a preliminary enquiry (PE) and submit a report in a fortnight.

However, the Maharashtra government and Deshmukh had moved the Supreme Court against the order, but the apex court okayed the CBI probe.

Read: Former Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh faces another probe

Over the past week, the CBI has started recording statements – the first being the activist-lawyer Jaishri Patil, one his plea, the probe was ordered.

Others whose statements were recorded included Singh, Vaze, deputy commissioner of police Raju Bhujbal, assistant commissioner of police Sanjay Patil.

Deshmukh's personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde too were grilled by the CBI.

It may be mentioned that Vaze has been arrested in connection with the planting of Scorpio laded with 20-odd gelatin sticks and a threatening letter near Antilia, the Carmichael Road residence of Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani and the murder of SUV owner Mansukh Hiran, a Thane-based businessman.

The three other accused in the case are Naresh Gor, a cricket bookie, Vinayak Shinde, a dismissed police constable undergoing life sentence who was on parole and Riyazuddin Kazi, another assistant police inspector.