Deshmukh says will sue Singh, CMO says it is verifying the mail

The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said it was verifying the authenticity of the mail. While the Opposition has asked for his resignation, coalition partners seem to have rallied around him.

Following allegations made by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh is in serious trouble and may have to resign from his post. Deshmukh refuted the allegations and also announced he would sue Singh for “making false accusations.”

Vaze row: Deshmukh says will sue Singh, CMO says it is verifying the mail

While the government officially did not respond to the allegations, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said it was verifying the authenticity of the mail. While the Opposition has asked for his resignation, coalition partners seem to have rallied around him.

Deshmukh said Singh was doing so to save himself from further action as he was involved in the Antilia bomb-scare case and links were leading the probe to him. He also said the former Mumbai police commissioner was trying to mislead the ongoing investigation and he is ready for an impartial probe.

In an eight-page letter, Singhhas alleged that Deshmukh had asked Sachin Vaze, controversial police officer arrested in Antilia bomb scare case to collect Rs100 crore a month, and several other allegations.

The letter that was sent to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and copied to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, additional chief secretary home Manukumar Srivastava and Santosh Kumar, principal secretary to the Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has come at the time ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leadership was already mulling to replace Deshmukh and deliberating on probable candidates who is more capable of handling the crucial department.

A state official said the chief minister’s office received Singh’s letter by mail at 4.37pm Saturday.

“It is an unsigned letter so we are verifying the authenticity. CM Thackeray was immediately informed about the same. The home department is trying to get in touch with Singh. The email is received from an ID which is different than the one given by Singh in the directory of IPS officer,” said the CM’s office.

Thackeray is unable to hold any meeting since he is under quarantine after his son and state minister Aaditya Thackeray was found Covid-19 positive on Saturday afternoon. A senior Sena minister said Thackeray has already got in touch with NCP chief Sharad Pawar over the issue. “It is clear that Deshmukh will have to step down. The decision will happen any time,” he said.

As Deshmukh refutes all the allegations, the opposition — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — has demanded his resignation. They have also demanded a probe either by a central investigation agency or a court-monitored probe. To maintain pressure they have also demanded to launch state-wide agitation from Sunday, demanding Deshmukh’s resignation.

“The former Commissioner of Police, Parambir Singh has made false allegations in order to save himself as the involvement of Sachin Vaze in the Mukesh Ambani & Mansukh Hiren’s case is becoming clearer from the investigation carried out so far & threads are leading to Mr. Singh as well,” Deshmukh said in a tweet in response to the allegations.

“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 in another clarification,” Deshmukh in another clarification.

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.

“On 16th March, When he realised that he will be removed from the post of Police Commissioner the next day on 17th, he deliberately asked a few questions to ACP Mr. Patil and got conveniently got expected answers out of it. This was a part of Mr. Parambir Singh’s larger conspiracy. It seems as if he intended to get ‘specific’ answers from these chats so that he can term them as ‘evidence’ later. You can clearly see the desperation of Mr. Singh through these chats. In the chats it is clear that Mr. Singh was leading the conversation to repetitively get particular information from Mr. Patil, why was that?,” he stated.

In an interview given to Lokmat, I mentioned that Mr. Parambir Singh was removed from the post as a consequence of some serious issues against him came to our notice, so Mr. Singh again tried to create some evidence in the form of WhatsApp conversation on March 19, he added.

Singh has created this conspiracy to deflect attention from the explosives case and Mansukh Hiren’s death. I ask the Chief Minister to conduct an unbiased & fair enquiry of Mr. Singh’s allegations, he said. Also, Deshmukh claimed it was Singh who reinstated Vaze who was suspended for 16 years and everyone in the police department is very well aware that Sachin Vaze and ACP Patil are very close to Param Bir Singh.

“The government started taking some action after the [suspended police officer Sachin] Vaze episode [pertaining to his connection in the Antilia security scare case and Hiran Mansukh case] came to light. Several decisions that had been taken by certain officers including the one to appoint Vaze as in charge of Antilia case were questioned. A new officer [Hemant Nagrale] was appointed as Commissioner in Mumbai. The allegations that have been made against the home minister are a reaction to various steps taken by the government to clean the mess. 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.

“The allegations made are not only serious but shocking. 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 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,” said Devendra Fadnavis, leader of opposition and former chief minister.

He said the incident has defamed Maharashtra and if Deshmukh continues to work as home minister then the probe may not remain impartial. “We also want either a central government should investigate the allegations or a court monitored probe can be conducted... The allegations have been made by a DG rank official and not by some ordinary person,” Fadnavis said in his response.

Shiv Sena leader and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said that he has not seen the letter and will not be in position to respond to the allegation. “I have not seen the letter. I don’t know anything about it. If the matter is related to the government, the people from the government will respond. I will not speak about the issue that I don’t have complete knowledge about. I don’t know what allegations have been made,” Raut told reporters in Nashik.

Late in the evening, CMO also issued a clarification saying that the letter received from a mail which is not registered as his personal mail address and also didn’t bear his signature. It is necessary to verify if Singh has sent the letter or not. The officials from the home department are trying to get in touch with him in this regard.

“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,” stated the clarification.

State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant sought to defend the home minister. He said that letter clearly appears to be an afterthought. The conversation being shown as a proof today should have happened a year ago and no sane person would do that after the busting of Antilia case.

“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,” he said in a series of tweets.

“The government started taking some action after the [suspended police officer Sachin] Vaze episode [pertaining to his connection in the Antilia security scare case and Hiran Mansukh case] came to light. Several decisions that had been taken by certain officers including the one to appoint Vaze as in charge of Antilia case were questioned. A new officer [Hemant Nagrale] was appointed as Commissioner in Mumbai. The allegations that have been made against the home minister are a reaction to various step taken by the government to clean the mess. 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.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray also demanded Deshmukh’s resignation.