MUMBAI: Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh on Friday filed a public interest litigation before the Bombay high court to seek directions for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct “immediate unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair investigation" in the various "corrupt malpractices" of Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.
Singh's PIL comes days after he wrote an eight-page letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray against Deshmukh.
Deshmukh had denied all the allegations in the letter.
Singh’s petition also seeks directions for taking into “safe custody" CCTV footage of Deshmukh's residence.
He also sought orders to the state government to ensure that police transfers are “neither done for any consideration of pecuniary benefit to any politician nor in contravention of directions of the Supreme Court."
He wanted urgent directions to produce a complete file of the report submitted by Rashmi Shukla as commissioner (Intelligence), State Intelligence Department for perusal of the high court.
His PIL is likely to be mentioned soon for fixing of a date.
Singh expressed concern that evidence such as CCTV footage at Deshmukh's residence could be destroyed unless urgent directions are issued in the matter.
He cited the Supreme Court order which asked him why he had not approached the HC which has the authority to address his concerns.
The SC bench in its order on Wednesday granted him liberty to move the HC in the case and said, “We have no doubt that the matter is quite serious and affects the administration at large. It also appears that a lot of material which has come in public domain is a consequence of the personas falling out."
Singh’s PIL says he had learnt last August that Shukla had highlighted the alleged corruption by the home minister and in February-end this year he held meetings with Sachin Waze of the Crime Intelligence Unit and told him “that he had a target to accumulate Rs 100 crore a month".
Singh said he was "shocked to know" from Waze and other officers about the "demand" and that in mid-March he had even pointed out the alleged malpractices to the chief minister.
He said that on March 17, the state home department issued an order transferring him from his post as Mumbai police chief to Home Guards department in an “arbitrary and illegal manner without the completion of the minimum fixed tenure of two years, on the pretext of administrative exigencies."
The PIL also said that in the suicide case of Dadar and Nagra Haveli MP Mohan Delkar, “even though nothing relating to abetment of suicide was found to have happened in Mumbai, the home minister wanted the case to be registered in the city."
On March 18, Deshmukh in an interview had alleged several serious lapses at the CP’s office by some police officials in the Antilia bomb scare case. He also said that Singh's transfer was not on administrative grounds.
Singh said that last October, Maharashtra had withdrawn consent for CBI investigations in the state and hence he was constrained to approach the court "considering the seriousness of issues involved."
He said that issues have “huge ramification on state administration, independence of police officials and confidence of public at large is shaken."