Anil Deshmukh appears before ED office

Mumbai, Nov 1: In a surprise development, former Maharashtra home minister on Monday morning went to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office without fanfare for the multi-agencies probe into the allegations of extortion and corruption hurled against him by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

The development came a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation nabbed a middleman Santosh Jagtap from Thane who was an alleged conduit in the corruption deals and evading arrest.

"I respect the courts... I have voluntarily decided to come to the ED for the probe. But I want to ask where is Param Bir Singh who levelled the false allegations against me," said Deshmukh in a recorded statement before he went to the central agency accompanied by his lawyer.

A senior Nationalist Congress Party leader, Deshmukh, 72, came under a cloud last April after Singh's letter to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that he (Deshmukh) had set a Rs 100-crore collection target for the former dismissed cop, Sachin Vaze.