Mumbai, Jul 22 (IANS): In a setback to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, the Bombay High Court refused to quash the CBI's first information report against him for the probe into the charges of corruption, here on Thursday.

Rejecting a plea by Deshmukh and the Maharashtra government, a division bench of Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice N.J. Jamdar said that "it deserved to be dismissed".

The CBI had lodged the FIR against Deshmukh and other unknown persons on April 24, following a high court order for a preliminary enquiry on April 5.

Deshmukh's lawyer, Amit Desai also sought time for a stay on the verdict and to appeal against it, which was refused by the court.

In his March 20 'letter-bomb' to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had set a target of collecting Rs 100 crore per month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai and other misdeeds, but the ex-minister had rejected the allegations.

The high court on April 5 disposed off a bunch of petitions in this regard, including by Singh and by lawyer Jayshri Patil, directing the preliminary enquiry against Deshmukh, which led to his resignation and a massive political furore.