The Enforcement Directorate (ED) late Monday (1 November) night arrested former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh after questioning him for over 12 hours in connection with the money laundering case.

The former Maharashtra minister had appeared before the ED to record his statement around noon, three days after his plea for cancelling the agency's summons in the laundering case filed against him, was rejected by the Bombay High Court.

Deshmukh had been evading questioning by ED for months and had exhausted his legal remedies, reports Times of India.

ED had raided several places in the last few months to trace Deshmukh, but could not find the former state minister.

After Deshmukh arrived at the ED office at Ballard Estate in Mumbai on Monday noon, the investigating officer started questioning him, with the agency’s additional director flying in from Delhi in the evening to supervise the process.

Earlier, Deshmukh’s private secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde were arrested by the agency for allegedly helping Deshmukh and his son Hrishikesh with money laundering.

According to the ED, Deshmukh, through Shinde, had collected Rs 4.7 crore from (now-dismissed) assistant police inspector Sachin Waze in cash. Waze was then heading the CIU branch of Mumbai police and had collected the money from orchestra bar owners of Mumbai illegally for Deshmukh.