Param Bir Singh letter: Sharad Pawar defends Anil Deshmukh, says charges meant to divert attention from probe into Ambani security scare

Param Bir Singh letter bomb: NCP chief Sharad Pawar today questioned the authenticity of certain allegations made in the letter by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. He said while Param Bir’s letter says that Anil Deshmukh had called some officers at his residence in mid-February, the state home minister was admitted in a hospital from February 5 to 15 after contracting Covid-19. And after February 15, Pawar said, Deshmukh was quarantined till February 27.

The NCP chief said that Deshmukh was in Nagpur during the period mentioned in the letter by Param Bir. He further questioned that if Param Bir had information (about Deshmukh’s instruction to officers to collect money) in the first week of March then why did he wait for about a month till he was removed as the Police Commissioner to reveal what he did.

After calling the allegations against Deshmukh serious, Sharad Pawar today said that the charges were made to divert investigation in the explosive case. Pawar said that even he felt the charges against the home minister were ‘serious’ but now having gone through the documents that prove that Deshmukh was not even in Mumbai during the period mentioned in the letter, it looked like the allegations were to divert attention.

Asked whether the probe against Deshmukh would be fair as he continues to stay as the state Home Minister, Pawar said that he had suggested an inquiry into the charges yesterday but after it has been proven that his party colleague was not even in Mumbai during the said period, the question of any probe now does not even arise.

In his letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Param Bir states that in and around mid-February and thereafter, Anil Deshmukh had called Sachin Vaze to his official residence where one or two staff members of the Home Minister including his Personal Secretary Palande were also present.