SC to hear Param Bir Singh's plea for transfer of inquiries to agency outside Maharashtra

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a fresh plea of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking transfer of all inquiries against him to an independent agency outside Maharashtra like the CBI.

Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer, was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner on March 17 and was made the General Commander of Maharashtra State Home Guard after he levelled allegations of corruption and misconduct against then Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh.

The Bombay High Court had ordered a CBI probe into allegations of Singh against Deshmukh who had to resign as the minister.

The senior police officer, in his fresh plea before the top court, has alleged that he has been made to face several inquiries by the state government and its instrumentalities and sought their transfer outside Maharashtra and a probe into them by an independent agency like the CBI.

A vacation bench of justices Vineet Saran and B R Gavai would hear the plea of Singh on Tuesday, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who has been representing Singh in courts, told PTI.

The former top cop of Mumbai, in his fresh plea, has made the state government, CBI and the Maharashtra Police chief as parties.

Singh, in his earlier plea filed before the top court, had sought a CBI probe against Deshmukh who, he claimed, had asked police officers, including suspended cop Sachin Waze, to extort Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants.

The top court had then asked him to go the Bombay High Court which ordered CBI probe into Singh's allegations and against that order the state government and the NCP leader subsequently failed to get any relief from the apex court.

Deshmukh denied any wrongdoing and had said there was not an iota of substantive evidence to even prima facie establish that any of the allegations made by Singh had an element of truth.

In its 52-page judgement, the high court had said Singh's allegations against Deshmukh had put at stake the citizen's faith in the state police.

Such allegations, made by a serving police officer, against the state home minister could not be left unattended, and were required to be probed into, if prima facie, they made a case of a cognisable offence, the high court had said.

The high court's verdict had come on three PILs including one filed by Singh seeking several reliefs as also a CBI probe into the matter.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Maharashtra has summoned Police Inspector Bhimrao Ghadge, who has levelled corruption charges against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, an official said on Monday.

In a related development, alleged cricket bookie Sonu Jalan, who has lodged a separate extortion complaint against Singh, appeared before CID officials for the third time on Monday and submitted what he claimed was "evidence" in support of his charges.

According to the official, a letter was issued by the CID on Friday, asking Ghadge, now posted at Akola in the Vidarbha region, to appear before the agency on Wednesday at Konkan Bhavan in Navi Mumbai.

Last month, the Maharashtra police had filed an FIR against Singh on the basis of Ghadge's complaint, which also names more than two dozen other police officials.

The FIR was registered at Akola against 33 persons, including 28 policemen, the official said.

The city Kotwali police in Akola had registered the FIR under various sections related to criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989 (Ghadge belongs to an SC community).

Besides Singh, now Director General, Maharashtra Home Guard, others named in the FIR include DCPs Parag Manere, Sanjay Shinde and Sunil Bharadwaj, ACPs Vijay Pulkar and D B Kamble and senior inspector Dilip Suryavanshi.

A former law officer and an assistant chemical analyser with a forensic lab have also been named, the official said.

The Akola police had filed a Zero FIR (mode of lodging FIR in any police station irrespective of the offence committed in that area or any other area) at the Kotwali police station and it was later transferred to the Thane city police for investigation.

Inspector Ghadge, in his complaint, had made a series of allegations of corruption against Singh and other officers, during the period when the former Mumbai commissioner was posted in adjoining Thane city.

Ghadge, who was posted in the Thane police commissionerate from 2015 to 2018, has alleged that during his tenure, several officers there under Singh had indulged in various acts of corruption.

He has claimed that Singh, as the Thane city police chief, had allegedly asked him not to charge-sheet certain individuals against whom FIRs had been registered.

Ghadge has also alleged that after he refused to obey Singh's instructions, five FIRs were registered against him and he was suspended.

Meanwhile, Jalan, who has accused Singh and some other policemen of extortion, appeared before CID officials for the third time.

Talking to PTI later, Jalan said, "I have submitted some CCTV footage, audio recording and call detail record (CDR) to the CID for further probe into my complaint."