Anil Deshmukh walks out of jail after 14 months; NCP holds show of strength

A battalion of top NCP leaders, armed with hundreds of party workers, accorded a rousing reception to Anil Deshmukh soon after he stepped out of Arthur Road jail on Wednesday evening.

Deshmukh, who had been incarcerated for nearly 14 months, was released after a vacation bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday turned down the CBI’s request to further extend the stay on his December 12 bail order.

Other than his family members, among the prominent faces present to greet the former home minister were leader of opposition in the assembly, Ajit Pawar, and MPs Supriya Sule and Prafulla Patel.

In a rare display of generosity, chief minister Eknath Shinde offered the government aircraft to Pawar to fly from Nagpur where he was attending the winter session of legislature. His party colleagues, Dilip Walse-Patil and Chagan Bhujbal, too shared the ride to the city.

Later, speaking to the media, 73-year-old Deshmukh said he had faith in judiciary and thanked the court for doing justice.

‘’Param Bir Singh (former city police commissioner) alleged that I had asked for ₹100 crore to be collected from bars and restaurants in the city. Later, he admitted in the affidavit submitted before the court that the allegations were based on hearsay and he did not have any proof against me,’’ he said.

Deshmukh also underlined the high court remarks where it had questioned the statement of dismissed police officer Sachin Waze, who was an accused in a murder case and was close to Parambir Singh. He also thanked party president Sharad Pawar and other leaders for their support.

The NCP took this opportunity to turn this into a show of strength and solidarity.

Also read: ‘Kafi Achche Din’: Journalist's tweet on bill at Mumbai airport goes viral

Party’s state unit president Jayant Patil came down on the central government for using the probe agencies to harass opposition leaders. Other leaders blamed the BJP for hatching a conspiracy to put Deshmukh behind bars.

From jail, Deshmukh went to Siddhivinayak temple in an open jeep with Sule and Patil standing by his side. Several party workers accompanied him on bikes, raising slogans.

Earlier in the day, Deshmukh’s lawyers Inderpal Singh and Aniket Nikam approached the special PMLA court for completing the formalities. The process, however, got delayed as the court was busy hearing the CBI’s plea for extension of custody of Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot, former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, and her husband Deepak Kochhar.

The formalities of the NCP leader’s release were over by 3pm after which Singh went to Arthur Road jail and dropped the release order in the drop box. Deshmukh walked out of prison around 5 pm.