Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh was released on bail on Wednesday, more than one year after he was arrested in an alleged corruption case.

The 73-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was greeted by senior leaders of his party as he walked out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison around 4.45pm.

On Tuesday, Bombay High Court refused to further stay its order granting him bail in a corruption case registered by the CBI.

Deshmukh was first arrested by the ED on November 2, 2021, in an alleged money-laundering case. It was based on an FIR registered by the CBI in an alleged corruption case on April 21, 2021. In a letter to Uddhav Thackeray on March 20, 2021, when he was chief minister, former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had instructed officers to collect Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants.

“The high court has observed that I was implicated in a false case,” Deshmukh said.