New Delhi: A Delhi court has directed the CBI to probe the role of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the alleged leak of the agency's preliminary enquiry (PE) purportedly giving clean chit to him. Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said that even though Deshmukh was not arrayed as an accused in the CBI's charge sheet in the matter, he may be the controlling mind of the larger conspiracy since he was the main beneficiary from the leak of the contents of the PE.
The court made the observation on Wednesday while taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed against the CBI's sub-inspector Abhishek Tiwari, Deshmukh's lawyer Anand Daga and the politician's social-media handler Vaibhav Gajendra Tumane for allegedly trying to subvert the Bombay High Court directed preliminary enquiry against the ex-minister.
It appears that accused persons i.e. Daga and Tumane 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, whereas the accused persons may only be hands, as he (Deshmukh) would have been and was the main beneficiary from the leakage of the contents of above PE and RC (case), the judge said.
He noted that the common objective of the conspiracy appeared to be to get access to the PE and investigation done in the matter somehow, albeit in illegal and clandestine manner, thereafter to use and circulate it, and for obtainment of the same, series of conspiratorial acts were seemingly performed by above accused persons. The CBI seems to have left the engine/ horse pulling the cart, thereby only arraigning those travelling in cart, as without pull of engine or horse the ride of cart or conspiracy would not have been possible, despite mountain of apparent evidence, CBI seems to have forsaken the man pulling the strings or the controlling mind or master mind or head while only chargesheeting the hands, for reasons best known, therefore CBI is directed to discreetly and thoroughly further investigate the role of Anil Deshmukh in present matter with utmost alacrity, in a time bound manner, the court said. It directed the agency to file a status report in this regard within four weeks without fail.
The CBI had earlier arrested Tiwari, Daga and Tumane in the case, who are currently in the judicial custody. Tiwari was taken into custody for allegedly receiving bribe from Daga, a Nagpur based advocate, the CBI said. The CBI had started a probe into the leak in which it emerged that findings of the PE were influenced. The CBI had started a PE on the orders of the Bombay High Court which had issued the direction while hearing a public interest litigation on allegations of corruption against Deshmukh.