Deshmukh laundered money collected from Mumbai bars through his trust: ED

Mumbai: On instructions of then state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, now suspended Assistant Police Inspector (API), Sachin Waze collected Rs 4.70 crore from various bar owners from December 2020 to Februray 2021 and handed over to aides of Anil Deshmukh (Kundan Shinde and Sanjeev Palande).
Deshmukh skipped the summons of the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, citing co-morbidities. The ED will send fresh summons to ask him to appear before them next week. Meanwhile, aides of Anil Deshmukh who got arrested late on Friday night, personal assistant Kundan Shinde and personal secretary Sanjeev Palande both were produced in front of the ED court and were sent to judicial custody for five days. As per ED, as stated in the remand copy, the case related to Deshmukh is how after his instructions, money in crores was collected by the arrested and suspended API Sachin Waze, the then Head of Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), from bar owners for smooth functioning of their orchestra bars after restricted hours without the restrictions of performance artists. “On behalf of 60 bar owners, Rs 40 lakh was given to Sachin Waze in December 2020 as good luck money. Further, on behalf of orchestra bars falling under jurisdiction of Zone1 to Zone VII of Mumbai Police, money amounting to Rs 1.64 crore was paid to Sachin Waze during January and February 2021. Further, on behalf of orchestra bars falling under jurisdiction zone VIII to Zone X11 of Mumbai police, money amounting to Rs 2.66 crore was paid to Sachin Waze in January and February 2021. Waze informed the owners that this money will go to ‘no1’ and crime branch and social service branch of Mumbai police.” The state’s remand copy was submitted in the ED court. In his statement, Waze also stated that he collected approximately some Rs 4.70crore from various bar owners between the months of December 2020 to Februrary 2021 and handed over the same to Kundan Shinde, PA of Anil Deshmukh, in two installments in the month of January and February 2021.
Further, a charitable trust, namely Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha, Nagpur, run by the Deshmukh family has also come to light. Deshmukh is the chairman of the said Trust and family members of Deshmukh are trustees and members.
Kundan Shinde, PA to Anil Deshmukh, is also one of the members of said Trust. The said Trust runs engineering, MBA and polytechnic colleges in Nagpur. “Upon scrutiny of bank statement of the said Trust, it was noticed that there are a number of cheque entries in the recent past amounting to approximately Rs 4.18 crore, which was received by this Trust from various Delhi-based companies, namely M/s Reliable Finance Corporation Pvt. Ltd, M/s VA Realcon Pvt. Ltd., M/s Utsav Securities Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Sital Leasing and finance Pvt. ltd. On enquiry, it is found that these companies are paper companies and only work for providing transfer entries. Accordingly, searches were conducted at four locations at Delhi w.r.t. these companies, it is revealed that these paper companies are owned by Jain brothers, namely Sh. Surendra Kumar Jain and Sh. Virendra Jain, and are mere paper companies having no actual business.”
The remand states and throws light on the Jains’ statement. When recorded, they stated that one person from Nagpur contacted them and asked for transfer /adjustment entries in the garb of donation to Shri Sai Shikshan Sanshta, Nagpur. Accordingly, money was received in form of cash from the said person on instruction of the Deshmukh family and the same was channelized through a web of various companies to the Trust in garb of donations. A total of approximately Rs 4.18 crore was thus diverted to the said trust in garb of loans/donations. “Statement of concerned person was recorded under section 50 of PMLA, 2002 on 17.06.2021 wherein he inter-alia stated that Shri Hrishikesh Deshmukh was looking for a person who would give donation to said Trust in lieu of cash, so he contacted Jain brothers who are already into such kind of business and he became a coordinator and guarantor for such arrangement. Accordingly, said arrangement was made between Trust and Jain brothers. He further stated that cash from Nagpur was used to be transferred through hawala to Delhi and Shri Hrishikesh Deshmukh was looking after all such arrangements. Total of approximately Rs 4.18 crore was received by the said trust from the paper companies of the Jain brothers in the garb of donation for which equivalent cash was transferred through hawala.”
The ED has stated that it is apparent that Anil Deshmukh, by virtue of his earlier position as Home Minister of the Maharashtra government, has received amounts to the tune of approximately Rs 4.70 crore from owners and managers of bars for smooth functioning and the said bribe money was apparently used by him through his son Hrishikesh Deshmukh for providing cash to Delhi based paper companies and after layering the same, was routed to the Trust in the form of donation.