A Delhi Court has directed CBI to further investigate the role of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in connection with an alleged corruption case for leaking information of a separate case.

“The CBI seems to have left the engine/horse pulling the cart, thereby only arraigning those travelling in the cart, as without pull of engine or horse the ride of cart or conspiracy would not have been possible, despite a mountain of apparent evidence, CBI seems to have forsaken the man pulling the strings or the controlling mind or mastermind or head while only charge sheeting the hands, for reasons best known, therefore CBI / investigating agency is directed to discreetly and thoroughly further investigate the role of Sh. Anil Deshmukh (Ex Home Minister Maharashtra) in present matter or RC with the utmost alacrity, in a time-bound manner, and are directed to file a status report in this regard within four (4) weeks of this order without fail, ” Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said.

The Court direction came while taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed against CBI’s Sub Inspector Abhishek Tiwari and lawyer Anand Daga.

Earlier CBI has arrested then CBI’s Sub Inspector Abhishek Tiwari and lawyer Anand Daga, in connection with an alleged corruption case for leaking information of a separate case against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in connection with the extortion case.

“After the perusal of the FIR, charge sheet, statement of the witnesses u/S. 161 CrPC, sanction u/S. 19 of PC Act, 1988 qua the accused Abhishek Tiwari by the competent authority dated 30.11.2021 and other documents on the record, I hereby take cognizance of the offence(s) u/S. 120B r/w. 201, 379, 409, 411 of Indian Penal Code r/w. 7 and 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (as amended in 2018) r/w. Section 43 r/w. Section 66 and 66B of Information Technology Act 2000 and substantive offences thereof,” said the court.

The court noted that from the reading of the charge sheet as a whole, and the relevant record, it appears that accused persons were closely associated with Anil Deshmukh and may have been acting in tandem with him, who may be the controlling mind of the larger conspiracy.

The arrests of the CBI official and lawyer came after the CBI registered an FIR against the sub-inspector, a Nagpur-based Advocate, and unknown persons on certain allegations, including illegal gratification.

On August 29, a report that was allegedly part of a preliminary inquiry conducted by CBI got leaked in media. The report mentions that the agency had concluded that “no cognizable offence has been committed by Anil Deshmukh”.

The CBI in its internal inquiry found that Deshmukh’s legal team tried to bribe some lower-ranked CBI officials in its preliminary inquiry. Strict action will be taken against the staff who were involved in the case. The investigation is underway to find out if more people were involved in the conspiracy to manipulate the documents.