Maharashtra govt moves Supreme Court challenging CBI probe against Anil Deshmukh

The Maharashtra government claimed that the High Court relied upon false, motivated, baseless and belated allegations to order a probe

The Maharashtra government as well as former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order of preliminary enquiry by the CBI into corruption allegations made by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

They claimed that the High Court relied upon false, motivated, baseless and belated allegations made on the basis of purely hearsay evidence to order a probe into the matter, causing irreparable damage to the reputation of the state as well as the individual.

A division bench of Bombay High Court comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni had on Monday asked the CBI to complete its 'preliminary probe' within 15 days on the issues, including Rs 100 crore collection target by Deshmukh.

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Hours after the court verdict, Deshmukh resigned from his post.

In the petition, Deshmukh as the state government sought an immediate stay and setting aside of the order by the High Court, which passed the order without hearing the parties, resulting in drastic consequences on the reputation of the then minister, and state agencies.

The plea claimed had the High Court issued notice to the petitioner as well as the state government, they would have demonstrated that the allegations by Singh could not be accepted at face value and why such allegations cannot be acted upon.

Raising questions on the CBI, it claimed independence of the outside agency has been a cause of concern, particularly when the state had withdrawn its consent to the central agency to investigate offences under its territory. "The High Court reposed faith in "an independent investigating agency" knowing full well about its credential in the past," it added.

The plea further contended if the High Court really wanted, it could have ordered the probe by the state agencies under its own monitoring.

Deshmukh, in his plea, also said the reason why the High Court passed the order did no longer survive as he has resigned from the post. He also submitted that the former Commissioner referred to conversations by others which was purely hearsay without any substantive basis.

After his transfer, the then Mumbai police Commissioner on March 20 triggered a massive political storm in Maharashtra with his letter raising grave allegations against the then Home Minister.

On his plea for a CBI probe into the charges, the top court on March 24 Wednesday asked Singh to approach the Bombay High Court, saying "the matter was quite serious and affected the administration" but "the High Court has the requisite authority to address the issue".