Mumbai: Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Saturday failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with the money laundering case registered against him, and has now been granted a new date for appearance early next week. Meanwhile, in its application seeking remand of Deshmukh’s two aides who were arrested earlier in the day, the agency has alleged that the former minister used a web of “paper” companies to route money collected by a dismissed assistant police inspector from orchestra bar owners across Mumbai and got the amounts transferred as “donations” to a Nagpur-based educational trust controlled by him.

The central agency early on Saturday arrested Deshmukh’s personal secretary SanjeevPalande and personal assistant KundanShinde after it carried out raids against them and Deshmukh in Mumbai and Nagpur on Friday.

They were later presented before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, which remanded them to ED custody till July 1. In its application seeking seven days’ remand of Shinde and Palande, ED said that some Mumbai bar owners/managers informed the agency that dismissed assistant police inspector SachinWaze, who headed the criminal intelligence unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch, held a meeting with them at his office regarding the collection of money for “smooth functioning of bars”.“Subsequently, on behalf of 60 bar owners, Shri Jaya Poojari and Shri Mahesh Shetty, bar owner/manager had paid Rs. 40 lakh to SachinWaze in December 2020 as “good luck” money,” said the remand application. It added that in January and February 2021, orchestra bar owners from Zone I to Zone VII of Mumbai police paid a sum of ₹1.64 crores to Vaze, and orchestra bar owners from Zone VIII to Zone XII paid him ₹2.66 crore during this period.“SachinWaze informed the bar owners/managers that the money so collected will go to “No.1” and Crime Branch and Social Service branch of the Mumbai Police,” the application said.