‘Absconding’, says court order pasted outside Param Bir Singh's Mumbai house

Param Bir Singh was declared a proclaimed offender by a Mumbai court last week after he remained elusive since March this year and did not show up before the trial court despite several notices and warrants issued against him.

A Mumbai court order, declaring former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh as 'absconding’, was pasted outside his flat in the city’s Juhu area on Tuesday.

Param Bir Singh is the second most senior Indian Police Service (IPS) serving officer in Maharashtra.   (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT File Photo)

According to the order, a complaint has been made before the court under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to extortion and criminal conspiracy and the court is satisfied that Singh has absconded or concealed himself to avoid the service of the warrant.

"Singh is required to appear before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Esplanade, Mumbai or investigating officer to answer the said complaint within 30 days," reads the order issued by the court, according to news agency PTI.

The “absconding” order comes a day after the Supreme Court on Monday provided Param Bir Singh protection from arrest in alleged extortion cases after the officer said he is “very much in the country”.

Singh, the second most senior Indian Police Service (IPS) serving officer in Maharashtra, also informed the top court that he is willing to submit to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any agency other than Maharashtra police.

A Supreme Court bench, headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, sought responses from CBI and the Maharashtra government on Param Bir Singh’s plea to transfer probe into the six first information reports (FIRs) from Mumbai Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It fixed the matter for hearing next on December 6.

The bench also asked the 56-year-old Singh to join the investigation by the Mumbai Police and issued notices to the Maharashtra government and CBI on the officer’s plea. It has fixed the matter for hearing next on December 6.

Six cases of corruption and extortion were filed against Singh after he wrote a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray levelling corruption and misconduct against the then home minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh.

Param Bir Singh was declared a proclaimed offender by a Mumbai court last week after he remained elusive since March this year and did not show up before the trial court despite several notices and warrants issued against him.

The crime branch of the Mumbai Police is investigating an extortion case registered in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai in August this year. Param Bir Singh, dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze and four others have been named in the first information report (FIR) for extortion.

Restaurateur Bimal Agarwal has alleged in his complaint that the accused extorted ₹11.92 lakh from him by threatening to register cases against two of his outlets. The crime branch arrested Vaze, Sumeet Singh and Alpesh Patel after it took over the investigation.

Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer, was removed as the Mumbai Police commissioner on March 17 and was made the general commander of Maharashtra State Home Guard after he levelled allegations against Deshmukh.