Will not arrest Param Bir Singh till May 20, Maharashtra tells Bombay HC

MUMBAI: Former city police commissioner Param Bir Singh will not be arrested till May 20 in connection with an FIR based on a complaint by police officer Bhimrao Ghadge, the state government told the Bombay high court on Thursday.
Special counsel for the state Darius Khambata with public prosecutor gave the assurance on a petition by Singh, who has sought quashing of the “malafide” criminal case. The state will file its reply by May 20 to his petition.
Senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Singh, said the investigation is “completely illegal and amounts to reinvestigation which cannot be undertaken without court nod”.
The FIR against Singh and about 30 others was registered on April 28 under sections of the IPC for criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and section 7 of the Civil Rights Protection Act, 1955. The incidents in the FIR happened in 2015.
Ghadge, who was posted in the Thane Police Commissionerate during 2015-2018, had alleged that Singh pressured him to drop the names of some persons from a case and when he refused to do so, Singh embroiled him in false cases.
Last week, the HC had asked Singh to mention his petition before a vacation bench in case of urgency. On Thursday, the vacation bench of Justices P B Varale and N R Borkar heard his plea briefly. In his petition, Singh said the FIR falsely accused him after attempts to pressure him to withdraw his March 20, 2021, letter to the chief minister alleging ‘corrupt malpractices’ against then home minister Anil Deshmukh failed.
Ghadge’s counsel Pradnya Talekar cited a Supreme Court ruling to argue that the interim reliefs sought by Singh for protective order and to stay the probe cannot be granted.