Uddhav Thackeray led Maharashtra government has told the Bombay High Court that as former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh facing police probe is not traceable, the Maharashtra police does not want to further extend ‘no coercive action’ assurance to him.
“In view of other developments, we are getting reports that Param Bir Singh is not traceable. Hence, the government is not inclined to continue its statement of no coercive action in this matter,” senior Advocate Darius Khambata, representing the Maharashtra government, told a division bench of Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Sarang V Kotwal.
Maharashtra government said this in connection with a police probe against Param Bir Singh in the wake of an FIR lodged against him by Thane Police under sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and IPC. The complaint was filed by police inspector Bhimrao Ghadge who alleged that Param Bir Singh had insulted him on the name of his caste and also got an FIR against him after he refused his (Param Bir Singh) order of dropping the names of a few persons from an FIR in 2015. Param Bir Singh has filed a petition for the quashing of FIR against him. During the course of the hearing in May, the government had assured no coercive action against him including arrest.
‘Param Bir Singh not traceable’ submission of the Maharashtra government came after Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil claimed that he may have left the country. Param Bir Singh had proceeded on leave as DG Home Guards on May 5, and is untraceable since then. Maharashtra police also issued a lookout notice against him.
To this statement of Darius Khambata, senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani who appeared on behalf of Param Bir Singh contended that the state government has not declared his client an absconder, hence no coercive action should continue till further hearing. Jethmalani told the court that Singh responded twice to the summons issued to him in the Thane case.
Other than the Thane case, the CID branch of Mumbai Police has been looking for Param Bir in connection with a bailable warrant issued by the KU Chandiwal commission which is investigating allegations of corruption he had levelled against NCP leader and former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.
There are as many as five FIRs against Param Bir Singh in Maharashtra on various charges including extortion whereas Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau is conducting a probe in two cases against him. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) also had summoned him during the probe of Antilia bomb scare case where explosives were found outside Mukesh Ambani’s house. But the summons returned unattended.
Param Bir Singh was once a blue-eyed boy of the Uddhav Thackeray government. He was shunted from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner after he wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in March against Anil Deshmukh.
He alleged that Deshmukh had ordered Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month, including Rs 40-50 crore from around 1,750 bars and restaurants in Mumbai. Param Bir Singh wrote this letter after NIA arrested Sachin Waze in the bomb scare case.
In another development, Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested a hawala operator Alpesh Patel from Mehsana in Gujarat in connection with an extortion case lodged against Param Bir Singh.