Ex-Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh is a proclaimed offender, orders court

Param Bir Singh (59), the second most senior Indian Police Service (IPS) serving officer in Maharashtra, is a proclaimed offender in connection with an extortion case

The city’s Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court on Wednesday declared former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh (56), the second most senior Indian Police Service (IPS) serving officer in Maharashtra, a proclaimed offender in connection with an extortion case. This is the first instance of a Mumbai police commissioner being declared a proclaimed offender. Singh was the city’s 43rd police commissioner.

The Mumbai court order declaring Param Bir Singh as a proclaimed offender came on a request by Mumbai Police’s crime branch which is investigating an August 20 extortion case registered in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai (Bhushan Koyande/HT File Photo)

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Sudhir Bhajipale simultaneously issued a proclamation against his alleged accomplices Vinay Ramnarayan Singh (46) and Riyaz Bhati (56). All three have been ordered to appear before the court in 30 days.

The order came following an application filed by Mumbai Police’s crime branch which is investigating an August 20 extortion case registered in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai. The FIR named Singh, dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze and civilians — Sumeet Singh, Alpesh Patel, Vinay Ramnarayan Singh aka Bablu and Riyaz Bhati — for extortion.

The complainant, restaurateur Bimal Agarwal, alleged that the accused extorted ₹11.92 lakh from him by threatening to register cases against two of his outlets – Boho Restaurant and BCB Bar. Once it took over the investigation, the crime branch arrested Vaze, Sumeet Singh and Alpesh Patel.

Special prosecutor Shekhar Jagtap, who represented the crime branch, submitted that on October 30 a non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued against remaining three accused – Param Bir Singh, Vinay Singh and Riyaz Bhati.

Jagtap said that “pursuant to the warrant, crime branch officials visited Singh’s last known address in the city at Neelam Building in Malabar Hill,” but that a cook informed them that Singh and his family had not stayed there for three months.

He said a crime branch team later visited Singh’s hometown of Chandigarh, where Singh’s brother reportedly informed the police that the former top cop had not visited Chandigarh recently. Similarly, he said, the crime branch officials visited Bhati’s house in Kandivli in north Mumbai and Vinay Singh’s residence at Andheri in western Mumbai, but could not either of them.

A short affidavit filed by investigating officer Vishal Patil in support of the plea seeking the proclamation under section 82 of the Criminal Procedure Code, stated that Singh has been absconding since March 2021. It added that, in the last four months, five cases have been registered against the senior IPS officer and that he failed to appear in all the five cases. Besides, it added, he also did not appear before Justice KU Chandiwal Commission, which is enquiring into Singh’s allegations of corruption against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.

The affidavit added that “despite best efforts by the crime branch”, none of the three accused were found and therefore, the “non-bailable warrants issued against them have remained unexecuted.” The crime branch claimed that the accused were “intentionally evading the law,” and that the crime branch had even urged the court to initiate process for attachment of their properties. This process, however, can be initiated under section 83 of the Criminal Procedure Code only if the trio fail to appear before the court in stipulated period of 30 days, pursuant to the proclamation issued on Wednesday.