A magistrate’s court in Maharashtra’s Thane district has issued a non-bailable warrant against Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh in an extortion case, India Today reported on Thursday.
Chief Judicial Magistrate RJ Tamble issued the warrant on Tuesday, but the order became available on Thursday.
The case is related to a first information report filed against Singh and 28 others, including six police officers, for allegedly extorting money from a builder.
The complainant, Ketan Tanna, had alleged that during his tenure as the Thane police commissioner between January 2018 and February 2019, Singh had extorted Rs 1.25 crore by threatening to frame him in criminal cases, according to The Indian Express.
Singh is also facing investigation in a number of matters, including four extortion cases filed by the Maharashtra Police.
However, the whereabouts of the former Mumbai Police chief have been unknown for a while now. Earlier this month, the Maharashtra government had told the Bombay High Court that he was not traceable. There is speculation that Singh might have fled India.
On October 1, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil had said that the state government was searching for Singh in relation to a bailable warrant issued by an inquiry commission.
The commission headed by retired Bombay High Court judge Kailash Uttamchand Chandiwal has been formed to investigate the corruption allegations levelled by Singh against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Singh had accused Deshmukh of extorting money from owners of bars, restaurants and hookah parlours in Mumbai. In April, the Bombay High Court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the allegations.
In addition to this case, Singh has also been booked in five first information reports filed by the Thane Police under the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe (Atrocities Prevention) Act, the Civil Rights Protection Act and the Maharashtra Police Act.
Police Inspector Bhimrao Ghadge had filed a complaint alleging that Singh had asked him not to chargesheet certain persons against whom first information reports had been registered. Ghadge also alleged that he was suspended for refusing to follow Singh’s orders.
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