'Will not touch this', SC junks Maharashtra govt's plea seeking SIT probe in Anil Deshmukh case

Anil Deshmukh. File Pic

The Supreme Court on Friday junked a plea by the Maharashtra government seeking direction to hand over the probe against former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh from the CBI to the special investigation team (SIT).

A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, "sorry dismissed!" The top court declined to interfere with the Bombay High Court order, which declined to entertain the Maharashtra government's plea seeking a court-monitored probe by an SIT against Deshmukh.

Senior advocate CA Sundaram, representing the Maharashtra government, submitted before the bench that the state government objected to the ongoing CBI probe against Deshmukh, with Subodh Kumar Jaiswal as the CBI director.

Sundaram vehemently argued that Jaiswal was the former DGP of Maharashtra and also chairman of the police establishment board at the relevant time, which examined the transfer and posting of the police officers concerned. The bench, also comprising Justice M.M. Sundresh, said: "We will not touch this matter".

Sundaram said the present CBI chief will either be possibly an accused or definitely a witness. "I am not going into likelihood of bias, a person who is relevant as a witness or an accused, he was directly involved," he said.

Sundaram emphasised that "if this is the situation that has arisen your lordship may constitute SIT or whoever to investigate the matter". After hearing arguments, the bench said it is not keen to entertain the state government's petition.

In April last year, the CBI registered a case against Deshmukh and others under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

Deshmukh, a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, is under investigation on allegations of bribe-taking for police transfers and postings, during his period as the home minister.

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