Ex-Mumbai police chief accuses minister of extortion, throws govt into crisis

Minister Deshmukh says transferred commissioner Singh lying to save himself amid Vaze case fallout.

Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused state home minister Anil Deshmukh of running an extortion racket in a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday, throwing the state’s ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government into a crisis.

CM Uddhav Thackarey (C) along with state home minister Anil Deshmukh(L) and Dy CM Ajit Pawar(R) seen addressing the media in this file picture. (Vidyadhar Rane/HT PHOTO)

The letter, which is unsigned, comes days after Singh’s transfer, brought about by curious circumstances surrounding an explosives-laden vehicle found outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in February.

The prime suspect in that case, currently in custody, is a Mumbai Police Assistance Inspector, Sachin Vaze, who was reinstated in the force — he was suspended on March 15 following a custodial death case — after the MVA, a coalition of the Shiv Sena, Congress, and Nationalist Congress Party, took over.

In the letter, which the Chief Minister’s Office has confirmed receiving, Singh accused state home minister Anil Deshmukh of “corrupt malpractices” for instructing police officers to “carry out official assignments and collection schemes including financial transactions”, as well as setting targets for them “to collect money” from establishments such as hookahbars and restaurants.

Deshmukh, who denied the allegations in the letter in a series of tweets, said late on Saturday that he would file a defamation case against the former Mumbai police commissioner, who was transferred on March 17. Singh did not respond to calls and messages for a comment.

The former Mumbai Police chief said that he had noticed acts of corruption of Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh. (HT Illustrator)

The “instructions” were brought to Singh’s attention by suspended police officer Sachin Vaze, the former head of the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police as well as Sanjay Patil, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Social Service Branch, the letter stated.

“The Hon’ble Home Minister expressed to Shri Vaze that he had a target to accumulate ₹100 crore a month. For achieving the aforesaid target, the Hon’ble Home Minster told Shri Vaze that there are about 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai and if a sum of Rs. 2-3 lakhs each was collected from each of them a monthly collection of ₹40-50 crores was achievable. The Hon’ble Home Minister added that the rest of the collection could be made from other sources,” the letter stated, referring to a purported meeting that took place in the home minister’s official residence Dyaneshwar in mid-February.

The allegations caused a political storm.

“For the first time in the history of Maharashtra, a director general level officer has made such allegations and that too with chats in which demand for money was made. The chat is an evidence to what Singh has said. We are of the view that the home minister should immediately resign from his position and if he is not ready then the chief minister should take his resignation,” former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

Officials from the chief minister’s office confirmed receiving the letter in the mail. “We have a received a letter on a mail today evening but it doesn’t bear Singh’s signature,” an official from the CMO said.

“The chief minister’s secretariat received a letter at 4.37pm from a mail — paramirs3@gmail.com. It has mentioned the name Param Bir Singh and doesn’t have any signature. We are trying to verify the details of this mail id and also home officials are trying to contact Param Bir Singh. In fact, Singh has given parimbirs@hotmail.com as his personal mail id, hence it is necessary to check authenticity of the mail,” a clarification issued later on Saturday stated.

“The allegations made by Param Bir Singh are completely false and he has to prove them now as I am filing a defamation case,” Deshmukh said.

“After the arrest of Sachin Vaze why was Param Bir Singh quiet for so many days? Why didn’t he say everything then?” he asked. “It is a conspiracy hatched to defame me and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government to save himself,” the home minister said.

Singh was transferred out of the Police Commissioner’s office on March 17, and made Commandant General of Home Guards, Maharashtra.

Fadnavis accused the MVA government of protecting Vaze, who was the lead investigator in the case before it was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), after Vaze’s name was linked to the death of a Thane businessman, Mansukh Hiren, who was linked to the SUV found outside Antilia.

“I have been made a scapegoat to divert attention from the actual wrongdoers,” Singh’s letter stated and explained that the transfer “was effected under section 22N(2) of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951 with the reason that my transfer was necessitated by administrative exigencies. I believe that the reason for the transfer noted by the Govt. in my file is to ensure a free and fair investigation in the Antilia incident.”

Hiren’s body washed up ashore a creek in Thane district on March 5, following which his wife, Vimla, gave a statement to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) that she suspected that Vaze was involved in her husband’s death.

The NIA, which took over the probe into the explosives case arrested Vaze on March 13 for allegedly planting the explosives and parking the car on Carmichael Road, where the Ambanis reside, on the intervening night of February 24 and 25.

On Saturday, the Centre handed over the probe into Hiren’s death to the NIA.

The letter also quoted a message exchange purportedly between Singh and ACP Sanjay Patil regarding a meeting that allegedly took place at Deshmukh’s official residence, in which other officials, including the home minister’s personal secretary Sanjiv Palande, were also present. The home minister allegedly gave similar instructions to Patil and another officer, DCP Raju Bhujbal.

The letter claimed that Deshmukh announced a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and registration of an FIR into the alleged case of abetment of suicide of Dadra and Nagar Haveli parliamentarian Mohan Delkar in the Assembly on March 9, even though Singh had expressed his concern that an abetment to suicide case cannot be probed by the Mumbai police, but should be investigated by the police of the Union Territory.

“Due to my resistance, the Hon’ble Home Minister was unhappy with me as the political mileage desired to be derived from the registration of the abetment of suicide case in Mumbai in the death of Shri Mohan Delkar, Member of Parliament against senior officials of Dadra & Nagar Haveli was not being achieved,” the letter stated.

The letter comes at a time when the NCP leadership was already considering replacing Deshmukh. If asked to resign, Deshmukh will be the second minister from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government to do so in the past three weeks. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Rathod, who was handling the forest department, resigned on February 28 after his name was mentioned in a suicide case.

However, the coalition government seemed to have rallied around Deshmukh on Saturday.

“If we ask Deshmukh to resign now, we would be doing what certain people want. Opposition can demand what they want but we will have to see why these allegations were made and why after the officer in question was transferred,” Jayant Patil, state NCP chief and water resources minister, said.

“So called SMS proofs appear to be manufactured for self-defense. HM (Anil Deshmukh) had told a month ago that some officials were under pressure. BJP has conspired against the MVA govt by putting officials under pressure from agencies. This is evident from the fact that the BJP leaders get secret information so early and in a planned manner by which they reacted swiftly,” State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said in a series of tweets.