As Param Bir Singh returns to Mumbai, minister says further action will be decided soon

Singh remained incommunicado for months, leading to rumours that he had fled the country, before finally surfacing in Chandigarh earlier this week.

A day after ‘absconding’ former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh returned to Mumbai to appear before the crime branch in an extortion case, Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil said a further action against the officer will be taken after consulting chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and in accordance with state's police service rules.

Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh is facing five separate charges of extortion and corruption in Maharashtra.  (Praful Gangurde)

“Permissible action will be taken as per the police service rules. Further decisions will be taken after speaking to the CM,” news agency ANI quoted Patil as telling reporters.

Singh, declared an absconder by a court, was questioned by crime branch officials in an extortion case registered against him on Thursday. Singh remained incommunicado for months, leading to rumours that he had fled the country, before finally surfacing in Chandigarh earlier this week. He had claimed threat to his life in Maharashtra following which the Supreme Court granted him protection from arrest.

The IPS officer, who is currently posted as the director general of home guards in Maharashtra, has not reported to work since May following his transfer from the post of Mumbai police commissioner and his subsequent allegations of corruption against then Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.

Singh was shunted out after police officer Sachin Waze was arrested in a case of an explosives-laden SUV being found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house, 'Antilia' and the subsequent suspicious death of businessman Mansukh Hiran.