New Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh (seated) with outgoing police chief Sanjay Barve. Prashant Nadkar

PARAM BIR Singh, an IPS officer of 1988 batch, was on Saturday appointed the 43rd commissioner of the Mumbai Police.

Singh, seen as a well-connected officer, was previously Director General, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). He succeeds Sanjay Barve, who retired on Friday, after getting three-month extensions on two occasions as the Mumbai Police Commissioner.

After taking charge from Barve at around 3pm on Saturday, Singh told the media, “Our priority will be to tackle street crimes and ensuring safety of women.”

Asked about challenges such ‘Mumbai bagh’, a replication of demonstration in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh against the CAA and the NRC, where demonstrators refused to clear the road, Singh said, “Holding protests is a democratic right, but they should be held as per law. No one will be allowed to take law into their hands while holding demonstrations.”

One of the main challenges for Singh will be to ensure that in light of the violence in Delhi there are no law and order problems in Mumbai, and careful handling of protestors against CAA and NRC.

Recently, while Singh was its chief, the ACB gave a clean chit to Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam.

During his tenure as Thane Police Commissioner, Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar was arrested in 2018.

He was also ADG (law and order) when Pune Police arrested nine activists in connection with the Elgar Parishad case in August 2018.

Singh had also supervised the arrest of Pragya Singh Thakur, currently a BJP MP, in connection with the Malegaon 2008 blast case when he was posted with the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).