The CBI said on Wednesday that it conducted searches at 10 locations in eight cities across Maharashtra, including the premises belonging to two senior police officers and some middlemen, in connection with the alleged corruption case filed against the State’s former Home Minister Amit Deshmukh.

In a development that came three days ahead of the Supreme Court hearing Deshmukh’s petition seeking “fair investigation” in his case, the CBI conducted searches at 12 locations in eight cities, including Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Osmanabad, in  connection with an FIR registered against him in the alleged corruption case.

The premises that the CBI searched on Tuesday included that of Assistant Superintendent of Police Sanjay Patil, Deputy Superintendent of Police Raju Bhujbal and a few middlemen.

On April 21, the CBI had registered an FIR against Deshmukh under section 7 of the amended Prevention of Corruption of Corruption Act and section 120-b (conspiracy) of IPC for an “attempt to obtain undue advantage for important and dishonest performance of the public duty”.

The searches by the CBI come on the heels of the Bombay High Court refusing to  quash the First Information Report (FIR) filed against Deshmukh by the CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act, after holding that his petition deserved to be “dismissed”.

In his petition filed by him challenging the FIR, Deshmukh had told the high court that the CBI had based its FIR on the “vague allegations” and that there was no case of allegations of ‘illegal gratification’’ under section 7 of PCA or criminal conspiracy under section 120-B of the IPC.

In his petition filed on May 5 he had also told the court that the CBI had not taken the Maharashtra government’s consent to register the FIR against him which he said was necessary since he was a minister when the alleged offence took place. Deshmukh had told the court that the reason behind filing an FIR against him was to have him “arrested with an ulterior motive”.

The CBI has based its FIR against Deshmukh and others on the recommendation made by CBI’s DSP R. S. Gunjiyal who conducted the PE against the former State Home Minister in line with the order passed by the Bombay High Court on April 5 that a complaint made by one Dr Jaishri Lamanrao Patil.

It may be recalled that three days after he was shunted and posted in a relatively insignificant post as the Commandant General of Home Guards, Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had in an eight-page sensational letter written to the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on March 20, 2021 alleged that State Home Minister Deshmukh had asked now arrested and suspended police officer Sachin Vaze last month to "collect" a staggering Rs 100 crore per month from bars, restaurants and other sources.