Bombay HC reserves order in PILs by Param Bir Singh, others seeking CBI probe

The court made the observation while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Singh seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Deshmukh.

The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh why he did not file a first information report (FIR) against Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh if he was aware that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was engaged in extortion.

Param Bir Singh. (HT File Photo)

The court made the observation while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Singh seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Deshmukh.

“As per your claims you were witness to an offence (Deshmukh asking police officers to extort money from bars and restaurants). Then why did you not file an FIR. You held the highest post in the force, what stopped you from filing the complaint?” a division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni asked of Singh, who was transferred out as commissioner on March 17 for his handling of the Antilia bomb scare case, and then chose to go public, on March 20, with allegations against the home minister.

The bench reserved its order on Singh’s PIL. “Even if Deshmukh was your boss, why did you not file a complaint against him? No one is above the law,” observed the bench.

Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for the state, started arguments objecting to the maintainability of the PIL by Singh as it was for personal gain, was politically motivated and was based on vendetta as Singh did not share a good rapport with Deshmukh while he was the commissioner of police (CP).

Kumbhakoni justified his submissions by stating that the allegations by Singh were made after he was transferred to the home guards by a March 17 order of the home department.

Kumbhakoni further added that while Singh alleged that Deshmukh bypassed him and called police officers to his residence and asked them to collect money from bars and restaurants, there was no affidavit or complaints by the officers themselves.

Senior counsel Vikram Nankani appearing for Singh, however, justified the PIL and stated that though his client enumerated the alleged malpractices by Deshmukh in his letter to the chief minister, no action was taken and hence he had no option but to approach the high court.

After hearing the submissions, the bench observed that prima facie the PIL by Singh was not maintainable as no FIR was registered. The court held that the basic premise of transferring an investigation was when an investigation was underway, however here in the absence of any FIR, no investigation was going on hence the court could not pass orders for transferring investigations to any other agency. After hearing all sides, the bench concluded the marathon hearing that lasted for more than six hours and said that it had heard all sides and the preliminary objections of the state on maintainability of the petition and reserved its order on the same.

Singh was transferred following a case that embarrassed the city police and the state government.

On February 25, a SUV with explosives was found outside the house of billionaire Mukesh Ambani. It turned out that the owner of the SUV had filed a complaint about the car being stolen on February 18.

However, the owner turned up dead on March 5, following which it emerged that Sachin Vaze, a powerful and influential sub-inspector in Mumbai Police, was behind the whole incident, according to the National Investigation Agency which is investigating both the explosives case and the murder.

Singh was moved out citing his handling of the case, following which he shot of an angry letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in which he made his allegations.