Param Bir Singh, former Mumbai Police Commissioner. (Express Photo: Ganesh Shirsekar)
A day after The Indian Express reported about the three probes by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against Senior IPS Officer Param Bir Singh, the lawyer of one of the complainants demanded the investigation in the corruption cases to be completed within a week.
Advocate Abha Singh, lawyer of alleged bookie Sonu Jalan, held a press conference on Monday, stating the demand.
Jalan in his complaint had alleged that Rs 3.45 crore was taken from him in two cases to close investigation against him by former cop Pradeep Sharma. Jalan alleged that in one of the two cases, Rs 10 crore was demanded by Sharma in Param Bir Singh’s cabin and eventually, he ended up paying Rs 3 crore.
This is one of the three complaints in which the ACB is conducting what it calls a “discreet inquiry”. There are two other such inquiries on separate complaints by two inspectors Anup Dange and Bhimrao Ghadge.
These probes by the ACB are in addition to the two inquiries by police and an FIR, based on the complaints of Dange, Ghadge and Jalan.
As per the ACB’s manual, a “discreet inquiry” should be completed in no more than three months.
During the press conference, Abha Singh said while the ACB manual may have a stipulated time period, the law of the land laid out by the Supreme Court in the Lalita Kumari judgment states that an inquiry should just take a week before a decision on whether an FIR should be registered or not should be taken.
“In this particular case, three days have already passed, so the ACB should complete the inquiry in four days. If not, on behalf of my client, I may approach the ACB court or any other court to get justice,” Abha Singh said.
ACB officials said their inquiry was underway and refused to comment on the issue.
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