Vaze-Deshmukh row: Maharashtra govt may announce probe into allegations

While Sharad Pawar suggested Julio Ribeiro’s name, he has refused; state may now look for other officers; Oppn says home minister should resign first

Amid former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations that home minister Anil Deshmukh ran a bribe ring, the Maharashtra government is expected to announce a probe into the allegations by a retired IAS or IPS officer. Although Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar suggested probe by former Mumbai commissioner and retired IPS officer Julio Ribeiro, the latter has refused to head any such probe. Deshmukh has refuted the allegations, saying he will file a defamation suit against Singh.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar addresses media on the allegations made against state home minister Anil Deshmukh by former Mumbai Police commissioner, on Sunday. (PTI)

Singh, the commandant general of home guards and former Mumbai police commissioner, alleged in his letter emailed to CM Uddhav Thackeray, that Deshmukh had asked some of the officers from Mumbai Police to collect ₹100 crore per month from bars, pubs and hookah parlours. Alleging that the home minister had indulged in interference in the police force and malpractices, Singh in his eight-page letter also said that he was under pressure to probe Mohan Delkar case in Mumbai.

“There could be a probe committee appointed under a retired IAS or IPS officer to look into the allegations. The committee may not be brought under the Commission of Inquiry Act to ensure that its recommendations are not binding on the government. The government will also not want to give undue importance to the letter by Singh,” said a minister, requesting anonymity.

According to an official from Mantralaya, the decision over constitution of the committee may be taken after taking the view of the home department into consideration. The officer said the department may ask for an explanation from police officers and personal secretary of the home minister named in the letter by Singh to verify the claims. “At the same time, there could be a departmental inquiry against Singh for violating the All India Services Rules by levelling allegations against the home minister and the leakage of the letter,” the officer said.

Leader of opposition in the legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has demanded a probe into allegations by a central agency or a court-monitored probe. He disapproved of Pawar’s suggestion saying that a retired IPS officer cannot probe an incumbent home minister. “We have great regard for Ribeiro, but how can a former IPS officer and a retired DGP conduct an inquiry against the home minister? Deshmukh should first resign from the post for an impartial probe,” he said.

Water resources minister and Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil said, “If not Ribeiro, another officer of similar integrity can conduct the probe. We will have to first go into the allegations levelled by Singh to find out the truth.”

He also said that the letter was an “afterthought” and an attempt to divert the attention from the main probe into the bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran case.