Another inquiry ordered against former Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh

Inspector Anup Dange had written to the state home department and the chief minister’s office, accusing Singh of corruption, top officers said on condition of anonymity

The Maharashtra government has ordered another inquiry against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh two months after inspector Anup Dange wrote to the state home department and the chief minister’s office accusing the former of corruption, top officers said on condition of anonymity.

Param Bir Singh. (HT archive)

Dange said his complaint has been transferred for inquiry by the director-general of police, Sanjay Pandey, while refusing to comment further.

In his complaint, a copy of which HT has seen, Dange has alleged Singh suspended and ordered a departmental inquiry against him in 2020 to shield a Mumbai pub owner in a criminal case.

Dange said earlier in 2019 when had gone to shut the pub for operating beyond the stipulated deadline, the owner allegedly boasted about his close ties with Singh. The pub owner later allegedly helped some accused involved in assaulting a police constable escape.

Dange has claimed he got calls from senior police officers asking him not to name the pub owner and a film financier’s grandson involved in assault in the First Information Report. He added when he booked all the accused including the pub owner, they threatened him with consequences.

After Singh became the commissioner in 2020, he allegedly transferred Dange and suspended him pending a departmental inquiry. Dange has alleged a relative of Singh contacted him on his behalf and demanded ₹2 crore to reinstate him. He said the demand was later reduced to ₹1 crore.

Dange claimed to have evidence to back his claims and demanded an inquiry.

Singh is facing another preliminary inquiry by Pandey on the basis of the report submitted by Mumbai police chief Hemant Nagrale. Pandey is expected to submit the inquiry report in the next few weeks.

Singh last month accused former home minister Anil Deshmukh of allegedly instructing former police officer Sachin Vaze and others to extort monthly ₹100 crore from the bars, pubs, hookah parlours, and other establishments in Mumbai.

Nagrale, in the report submitted to the government, has said Vaze, who is the prime accused in the bomb scare case outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house, was reporting directly to Singh. The report added Vaze’s was posted with the crime intelligence unit on Singh’s insistence.

Singh did not respond to HT’s requests for comment.