CBI searches 8 cities over graft charge against Anil Deshmukh: Report

The CBI has conducted searches at 12 locations in eight cities of Maharashtra, including at the premises of ACP Sanjay Patil and DCP Raju Bhujbal, in connection with allegations of corruption against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh (pictured), officials said on Wednesday. 

The searches were carried out in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Thane, Solapur, Sangli and Osmanabad, they added. 

The premises of "encounter specialist" Patil in Pune and Mumbai, and those of Bhujbal in Ahmednagar and Mumbai were covered during the operation, which concluded on Tuesday night, the officials said. The other premises belonged to alleged middlemen whose names have not been disclosed by the agency. 

The CBI has booked Deshmukh and other unidentified persons under the IPC section related to criminal conspiracy and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act for "attempting to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of public duty". 

In his letter to Maharasthra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after he was removed from the Mumbai police commissioner's post, Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh asked Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze to extort over Rs 100 crore a month from the bars and restaurants of the city, the officials said. 

"The preliminary enquiry prima facie revealed that (they) ....have attempted to obtain undue advantage for improper and dishonest performance of their public duty," the FIR alleges.