NEW DELHI, Nov 25: The former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who re-surfaced in Chandigarh on Wednesday after being “missing” for the last couple of months, appeared before the Mumbai crime branch police on Thursday in connection with four cases of extortion filed against him.
After apprehensions spread that he may have fled the country as he was reported “missing” since October, on November 17, a Mumbai court had said Singh could be declared an “absconder,” which meant that he could be treated as a fugitive from law. Earlier this week a notice to that effect was pasted outside his home in the city’s Juhu area.
“I will join the investigation as directed by the court,” Singh told reporters at Mumbai airport when he arrived from Chandigarh earlier on Thursday. He had resurfaced only after the Supreme Court on Monday granted him protection from arrest in a move that raised eyebrows. He was asked to join investigations into extortion charges against him.
Param Bir Singh “does not want to abscond and does not want to run anywhere” but faces a threat to his life, his lawyer told the court, assuring it that Singh was, in fact, in India. “It should not appear to the court I am afraid. I have full faith in the system. I am ready to appear before a CBI court (but) I am being hounded. I am suffering…” Singh had pleaded.
To that a perplexed court responded: “If the former police commissioner of Mumbai says he faces a threat from Mumbai Police, then what kind of message does it send?” The officer “shall join investigation, but will not be arrested,” the court had eventually ruled. Last week the same court had refused to grant Singh any such protection, asking him sternly to first reveal himself. “Where are you? Are you in this country or outside? In some state? Where are you? No protection until we know where you are,” the court had said.
In May, Singh went on medical leave when he was moved out of the office of the Mumbai Police Commissioner and send to home guards and has not reported for duty since. Apart from the non-bailable warrant issued in this case from Goregaon, there are two other warrants issued against Singh in connection with other alleged extortion cases registered in Marine Drive and Thane.
The case at Goregaon police station was registered on August 20, on a complaint filed by a hotelier and civic contractor as he alleged that Singh, dismissed Assistant Inspector Sachin Waze, and the other accused, extorted cash and valuables worth Rs 11.92 lakh from him.
A senior IPS officer said, “He has appeared before prior intimation and they are yet to decide any future course of action as he already has protection against arrest from the Supreme Court.” Singh subsequently accused then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption; Deshmukh has since been arrested and is now in Enforcement Directorate custody. Mumbai Police had told the court it had no idea where Singh was.
Singh was transferred after Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze was arrested in connection with the Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case (an SUV filled with explosives was found near Ambani’s home) and the subsequent suspicious death of businessman Mansukh Hiran. Waze was known to be close to Param Bir Singh and had direct access to him, despite being just an Assistant Police Inspector.
Inspector Sunil Mane, who was in charge of Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch Unit 11 office when Singh was top cop, is now in jail with Sachin Waze. After his transfer (to the Home Guard), Singh made sensational accusations against Deshmukh, accusing him of asking police officers to collect bribes from hotel and bar owners. Deshmukh has denied all these allegations.
Currently, in Maharashtra, there are five cases of extortion registered against Singh. The Anti-Corruption Bureau has started two open inquiries against him. Also three non bailable warrants have been issued by the courts.
(Manas Dasgupta)