CBI files FIR against Anil Deshmukh, 4 others for trying to frame BJP leaders

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a First Information Report (FIR) against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and four others for an alleged conspiracy to implicate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including state rural development minister Girish Mahajan, in a false case in 2020.
The four other accused are a former special public prosecutor, a lawyer, and two police officers. The CBI lodged the case after a two-year preliminary inquiry, which originated from a pen drive handed over by senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was in the Opposition in 2020.
Deshmukh on Wednesday denied the allegations, saying the CBI had filed “another baseless case” against him. The senior Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader was previously arrested by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate after being accused of corruption.
In June this year, the CBI took over two cases from the Jalgaon police on a request from the Maharashtra government. HT had reported about it on June 22. One of the cases pertained to an FIR registered in October 2022. The complainant, a 43-year-old businessman, said the Jalgaon police had filed the case against him and his colleague, which was later transferred to the Pune police.
According to the complainant, in January 2022, the Pune police searched his and one of his relatives’ houses. He alleged that Vijay Bhaskar Patil, a lawyer and director of a cooperative educational institute in Jalgaon, had plotted to illegally enter his home when the police were searching his relative’s house to plant some items, including a knife and a few documents. Patil is one of the accused named in the CBI’s FIR.
The complainant further claimed that Patil had informed various dailies that “strong evidence has been found” against him and Girish Mahajan in the police raid. After learning about the alleged conspiracy, the complainant said he immediately approached the Jalgaon superintendent of police.
According to the complainant, the pen drive submitted by Fadnavis allegedly has a video of Patil discussing with some other people how to keep the knife and documents at his home and show that they were seized in the police raid. In 2022, Fadnavis, while submitting the pen drive in the Maharashtra assembly, claimed it contained videos showing individuals, including the then special public prosecutor Pravin Chavan, talking about planting evidence to frame a fake case against Mahajan.
Patil had earlier also filed a complaint that led to an FIR being registered against Mahajan and 28 others on charges including grievous hurt to extract a confession, kidnapping, and extortion under the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The case was later transferred to the Pune police and then to the CBI. The CBI, in its closure report submitted to a MCOCA court in January this year, said the case registered against Mahajan could not be established.
The CBI report also referred to the statement of the then senior Jalgaon police officer, which alleged that Deshmukh, as home minister, had allegedly pressured him to register a case against Mahajan and others.
The second case taken over by the CBI in June from the Jalgaon police, based on a 2023 FIR, had alleged that Pravin Chavan and a few others had asked a businessman to pay them money in exchange for securing bail for his father and unfreezing his attached bank accounts. When HT had contacted Chavan, he denied all the allegations, calling them “politically motivated”. HT could not reach Deshmukh and Chavan on Wednesday despite several attempts.
However, in a post on X, Deshmukh said: “Thank you… Devendraji Fadnavis. Another baseless case has been filed against me by the CBI. This conspiracy started after the ground beneath the feet of Fadnavis slipped away after seeing the opinion of the public. I do not begrudge such threats and pressure at all. Unflinchingly I have vowed to fight against this oppression of BJP.”