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Param Bir Singh named new Mumbai police commissioner as Sanjay Barve retires
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday handpicked Param Bir Singh, a 1988-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, as the new police commissioner of Mumbai.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday handpicked Param Bir Singh, a 1988-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, as the new police commissioner of Mumbai. Singh, who was director general (DG) of the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), will replace Sanjay Barve who retired on Saturday. Barve was given two extensions of three months each.
The state home department issued an order, which also announced that Bipin K Singh, additional director general (ADG) of ACB, will take over as acting DG till further notice.
Singh’s name was finalised for the Mumbai police chief’s job after a high-level meeting between Thackeray, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and home minister Anil Deshmukh on Friday evening. Besides the six DG-rank officers, names of a few others of the rank of ADG, too, were considered for the post. ADGs Rashmi Shukla, Sadanand Date, K Venkatesham were among the contenders. A senior home department official, on condition of anonymity, said NCP, which has the home portfolio, was in favour of Singh, while Thackeray was considering other names. “Ultimately, Singh was picked,” said the official.
Before heading the ACB, Singh was additional director general of police (law and order) in the Maharashtra police. He was also the Thane police commissioner; additional commissioner in the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS); deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in several zones in Mumbai; and superintendent of police (SP) in Chandrapur and Bhandara districts.
As Thane police chief, Singh was involved in cracking high-profile cases such as the arrest of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar, in an extortion case; Mira Road call center case; Ephedrine drug haul case; and call data records (CDR) case, among others.
Singh, however, had courted controversy last year, after he held a press conference on August 31 at the state police headquarters on the arrest of activists with alleged Maoists links. In the conference, Singh had read out letters allegedly written by these activists, who were arrested in June. Later, the Bombay high court had slammed Singh for reading out the letters, which may be used as evidence.
Singh was also in the news last December when he filed an affidavit before high court, giving a clean chit to NCP leader Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam case.
Meanwhile, a home department official said a reshuffle of top brass of the state and city police is expected in the next few weeks.
