Have issued fresh orders for probe against Param Bir Singh: Maharashtra govt to HC

Fresh orders have been issued for conducting two preliminary inquiries against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, the Maharashtra government informed the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday

Fresh orders have been issued for conducting two preliminary inquiries against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, the Maharashtra government informed the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday. The development comes about a week after Maharashtra director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey recused himself from conducting the probe.

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Representing the state, senior advocate Darius Khambata informed the division bench of SS Shinde and justice Manish Pitale that the government issued the new orders on Tuesday morning. Khambata was responding to a petition filed by Singh – who presently holds the post of commandant general at Maharashtra home guards – challenging the April 1 and April 20 orders of the state government that directed Pandey to inquire whether the former Mumbai Police chief had violated provisions of the All-India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968, as well as into the allegations made by police inspector Anup Dange that the senior IPS (Indian Police Service) officer’s brother had demanded ₹2 crore for getting him reinstated after he was suspended on disciplinary grounds.

Khambata submitted that the petition had become infructuous as the Singh had challenged the decisions to entrust the inquiries to Pandey, but the DGP has recused himself from the probe and now fresh orders have been passed for the inquiries.

The senior advocate added that the petition filed by the senior IPS officer was also not maintainable for it essentially involves service-related issues and Singh should have moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for challenging the inquiries, and not the HC.

Senior advocate Navroz Seervai, who represented Pandey, endorsed Khambata’s submission that the petition before HC was not maintainable. He added that the petition has made totally false allegations against the DGP.

In his petition, Singh claimed that Pandey had advised him to withdraw the March 20 letter, levelling corruption and extortion charges against the then home minister Anil Deshmukh and in return offered to close the inquiries against him.

Singh’s counsel, advocate Sunny Punmiya, however, urged the court to adjourn the hearing on the petition till Thursday on the grounds that senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Abad Ponda, who lead him in the matter, were not available today.

Though the judges found substance in the objections raised by Khambata and Seervai and opined that the issues involved in the petition could be adjudicated by CAT, they decided to adjourn the hearing. They, however, refused to take it up on Thursday, and posted Singh’s petition for further hearing on June 9, observing that there was no urgency in view of the statement made by Khambata.

On March 20, three days after he was shunted out from the post of Mumbai Police commissioner, Singh had written a letter to the Governor, the chief minister and others, alleging that Deshmukh had summoned assistant inspector Sachin Vaze, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Sanjay Patil and deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Raju Bhujbal to his house and told them to collect ₹100 crore every month from establishments in Mumbai.

Acting on a bunch of petitions, including the one filed by Singh and another by activist Jaishri Patil, HC on April 5 had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct preliminary inquiry into the allegations. The CBI director was ordered to decide on further course of action on the outcome of the inquiry. Accordingly, after the preliminary inquiry, CBI on April 21, registered an offence against Deshmukh and also conducted raids at his residences.

3-member panel to conduct inquiries

The state government has formed a three-member committee, headed by senior Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer Debashish Chakrobarthy, to conduct the preliminary inquiries against Singh, home department sources said. A senior IPS officer from the state police and an expert on legal matters, are likely to be the other two members of the committee. A 1986-batch IAS officer, Chakrobarthy is additional chief secretary (planning). He is known to be an upright officer. Chakrobarthy will inquire whether there was any dereliction of duty on Singh’s part in not apprising the government about the Antilia explosives scare. He will also probe the corruption allegations made by Dange. (Inputs from Vijay Kumar Yadav)