Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sachin Vaze applied for bail in a PMLA case on Tuesday after the court granted ex-minister Anil Deshmukh’s son bail in the case.
Mumbai,UPDATED: Nov 16, 2022 3:43 AM IST
Sachin Vaze is taken by NIA to produce for court on Marine Drive in Mumbai (Photo: File)
By Vidia : A special court in Mumbai under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has reserved its order on the bail application filed by fired Mumbai officer Sachin Vaze in the case involving former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and a few others were also arrested.
Lawyers Sajal Yadav and Aarti Kalekar, representing Vaze, told the court that the top Mumbai cop in the case was never arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Yadav testified in court that Vaze had helped with the investigation, and this was reflected in ED’s response to the application for Vaze to become an approver on the case.
Vaze has already become an approver in the CBI case against Deshmukh, and he has also filed a similar application in the PMLA court, seeking an approver.
Special Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves, representing the ED, told the court that Vaze had previously submitted a plea for bail on similar grounds to the PMLA court and it was rejected.
Gonsalves added that circumstances had not changed since then.
Yadav responded by saying that the change in law overrides the argument that there has been no change in circumstances.
He further pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI case, which deals with issues related to not arresting an individual during an investigation and cooperating with the agency.
PMLA Special Judge RN Rokde said he would issue an order on the matter on Nov. 18.
In this case, Deshmukh has already been released on bail by the Bombay High Court, while his son Salil Deshmukh, who was not arrested by the ED during the investigation, was also released on bail on 1 November.
Two of Deshmukh’s associates, his personal secretary and personal assistant, Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde, are still behind bars.
The three have been charged with laundering money obtained by Vaze, allegedly on Deshmukh’s orders. The CBI had also filed an extortion case against the four men. Vaze, on the other hand, was pardoned after becoming an approver in that case. However, no suspect in the CBI case has yet been released on bail.
Read | Antilia bomb threat case: Mumbai court rejects discharged officer Sunil Mane’s application for dismissal