NEW DELHI: The Sachin Vaze controversy blew up right in the face of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra on Saturday with former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh — who was unceremoniously transferred a few days ago — accusing home minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption.
In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh said that Deshmukh had asked Vaze to collect Rs 100 crore in bribes every month from restaurants, hotels and other establishments.
"The Hon’ble Home Minister added that the rest of the collection could be made from other sources," Singh said in explosive revelations.
Here's the full text of the letter: The former Mumbai police chief said that Deshmukh had cited in a recent interview that his transfer was ordered due to security lapses committed at his office in the case related to the explosive-laden SUV that was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence.
Singh said that at a briefing session about the SUV incident, he had raised "several misdeeds" and "malpractices" on the part of Deshmukh, a senior NCP leader.
"I have similarly briefed the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister, Maharsahtra, the President of the Nationalist Congress Party, Shri Sharad Pawar and other senior Ministers also about the misdeeds and malpractices. On my briefings, I noticed that some of the Ministers were already aware about some aspects mentioned by me to them," he said.
Elaborating on his charges, Singh said that Deshmukh had called Vaze to his residence and repeatedly instructed him to assist in the "collection of funds".
"The Hon’ble Home Minister expressed to Shri Vaze that he had a target to accumulate Rs. 100 crores a month. For achieving the aforesaid target, the Hon’ble Home Minister told Shri Vaze that there are about 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai and if a sum of Rs. 2-3 lakhs each was collected from each of them, a monthly collection of Rs. 40-50 crores was achievable," the letter said.
Singh further said that Vaze himself told him about Deshmukh when he came to his office the very same day.
"I was shocked with the above discussion and was mulling over how to deal with the situation," he wrote.
Singh accused Deshmukh of regularly calling his officers and giving them instructions about collection of money, saying that his colleagues had apprised him of these "corrupt malpractices".
"The Hon’ble Home Minster has been instructing them to carry out official assignments and collection schemes including financial transactions as per his instructions based on his expectations and targets to collect money," he wrote.
In another explosive charge, Singh said that Deshmukh insisted that the suicide case of Dadra & Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar be investigated in Mumbai and not the Union Territory.
He said that since Delkar had blamed officials in Dadra & Nagar Haveli in his suicide note and all the alleged acts of abetment had taken place there, the case should have been investigated by the local police.
"Despite being fully aware of the opinion of the legal experts, the general opinion and the reasons behind it, the Hon’ble Home Minister announced the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and registration of an FIR into the alleged case of abetment of suicide of late Shri Mohan Delkar, Member of Parliament, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, on the floor of the Maharashtra Assembly on 9th March 2021," he said.
Singh added that Deshmukh was "unhappy" due to his resistence about the same.
" ... The Hon’ble Home Minister was unhappy with me as the political mileage desired to be derived from the registration of the abetment of suicide case in Mumbai in the death of Shri Mohan Delkar, Member of Parliament against senior officials of Dadra & Nagar Haveli was not being achieved," he claimed.
Denying Deshmukh's charges against the police force, Singh said that he has been made a "scapegoat" to divert attention from "actual wrongdoers".
He said that the justification given by the state home minister for his transfer seem to for extraneous and vindictive reasons.
Strongly dismissing the allegations, Deshmukh said that Singh is afraid that Vaze's alleged links to the Mukesh Ambani security scare case and the death of Mansukh Hiran will come out.
"Sachin Waze's direct links in Antilia case and Mansukh Hiran case are coming out. Param Bir Singh is afraid that its connections will reach up to him. He has made these false allegations to save and protect himself from legal action," Deshmukh said on Twitter.
BJP leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis sought Deshmukh's resignation over the claims made by the IPS officer.
"We demand the home minister's resignation. If he doesn't, then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray must remove him. An impartial probe must be conducted. The letter also says the chief minister was informed about this earlier, so why didn't he act on it?" Fadnavis, leader of the opposition in Maharashtra assembly, told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has said that it is confirming whether the letter was actually sent by Singh himself since it was not mailed from his official email ID.
"Letter from Param Bir Singh was received at 4:37 pm today via a different email address, not his official one and was without his signature. The new email address needs to be checked. Home ministry is trying to contact him for the same," the Chief Minister's Office said in a statement.
Vaze is the police officer, now suspended, at the centre of the case involving planting of a car loaded with explosives near billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai residence Antilia.
Assistant police inspector Vaze was arrested by the NIA recently over its probe into the recovery of an explosives-laden SUV near Ambani's house on February 25.
Vaze (49), credited with eliminating 63 alleged criminals in 'encounters', is also facing heat in the murder case of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran.
Hiran was found to be in possession of the Scorpio car that was parked near Ambani's house. He was later found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5.
Hiran's wife accused Vaze of involvement in her husband's suspicious death.
(With inputs from agencies)