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Mumbai crime branch takes over probe in extortion complaint against Param Bir Singh
This is the fifth criminal case filed against Singh following one in Marine Drive and four at a Thane police station.
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 on the basis of allegations made by hotelier and civic contractor Bimal Agrawal was transferred to the Mumbai crime branch unit 11 for further investigation. The police also arrested accused, Sumit Singh alias Chintu and he was produced in court and remanded in police custody till Monday.
A senior officer of the crime branch confirmed the matter and said, they have been recording statements of Sumit Singh to know the exact sequence of events while adding that the other accused in the case will be arrested soon.
Bimal Agrawal alleged in his complaint that Singh, Vaze and Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Vinay Singh alias Bablu and Riyaz Bhati had threatened him and extorted monthly payments since January 2020 till March 2021 for “letting him run his hotels in Goregaon and Andheri without any police hassles”.
The complainant claimed that he had paid ₹9 lakh in cash and 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 even bookies, in return for letting them run their betting business in Mumbai without any police intervention.
Vaze, who is already 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 Singh following one in Marine Drive and four at a Thane police station. Coincidentally, Bimal Agrawal is the co-accused with former Mumbai police commissioner 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 a hawala racket related to the IPL betting scandal in February 2017 while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also arrested him in December 2017 in connection with 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.
