Mumbai crime branch takes over probe in extortion case against Param Bir Singh

The complainant claimed that he had paid ₹9 lakh in cash and had given two Samsung Fold-2 mobile phones worth ₹212,000 to meet their extortion demands

The fifth case of extortion, which was registered by Goregaon police station against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, dismissed cop Sachin Vaze and three others, based on an allegation made by hotelier and civic contractor Bimal Agrawal, was transferred to the Mumbai crime branch unit 11 for further investigation.

Param Bir Singh. (Praful Gangurde)

The police also arrested one accused, Sumit Singh alias Chintu, out of the five. He was produced in court and remanded in police custody till Monday.

A senior officer of the crime branch confirmed the development and said, they have been recording statements of Sumit Singh to know the exact sequence of the incident, while other accused in the case will be arrested soon.

Agrawal alleged in his complaint that Singh, Vaze and arrested accused Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Vinay Singh alias Bablu and Riyaz Bhati had threatened him and extorted monthly payments from January 2020 till March 2021 for “letting him run his hotels in Goregaon and Andheri without any police hassles.” The complaint claimed that he had paid ₹9 lakh in cash and had given two Samsung Fold-2 mobile phones worth ₹212,000 to meet their extortion demands. Agrawal further claimed that he had learnt that the accused had also extorted money from other hotel owners and bookies, in return for letting them run their betting business in Mumbai without any police intervention.

Vaze, who is already lodged in Taloja jail, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Antilia explosives scare case and the subsequent murder of Thane resident Mansukh Hiren.

This is the fifth criminal case filed against Param Bir Singh following one in Marine Drive and four at a Thane police station. Coincidentally, Agrawal is co-accused with the former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh in an extortion case registered in Thane Nagar police station in July 2021. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Agrawal in connection with corruption and hawala racket related to the IPL betting scandal in February 2017, while Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested him in December 2017 for a money-laundering probe in a cricket betting case.

The Goregaon police registered a case under section 384 (extortion), 385 (extortion and threat of physical harm) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on Friday.