The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday a petition filed by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the corruption allegations he levelled against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, reported the Hindustan Times.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and R Subhash Reddy will take up Singh’s plea. In his petition filed on Monday, Singh had sought a CBI inquiry into the “various corrupt malpractices” of Deshmukh. He added that the investigation should be unbiased, impartial and fair.
The former police chief had sought protection from coercive action against him by the Maharashtra government. He had also challenged the state government’s March 17 order transferring him to the Home Guard.
On March 20, Singh, in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, accused Deshmukh of extorting money from bars, restaurants and hookah parlours in the city. The former police chief wrote that suspended Crime Branch officer Sachin Vaze told him that the minister had asked him to collect Rs 100 crore every month through illegal channels.
Singh also accused the home minister of frequently interfering with police investigation in various cases.
Vaze was sent to the custody of the National Investigation Agency on March 15 for his alleged role in placing an explosives-laden vehicle outside the south Mumbai residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani last month. Two days later, Singh – who was handling the investigation – was transferred from his position to the low-key Home Guard department by the state government.
The allegations have landed the Shiv Sena, the Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party government in a huge controversy. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have claimed there was a possibility that such incidents of alleged extortion were taking place in other Maharashtra cities like Pune, Nagpur and Jalgaon.
Deshmukh had rubbished the allegations levelled against him by Singh, alleging that the police officer was trying to cover up after mishandling the Ambani case. After initially calling the charges against Deshmukh “serious”, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had dismissed them on Monday. Pawar claimed that Deshmukh was hospitalised after testing positive for the coronavirus during the period that Singh mentioned in his accusations.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday accused the NCP of covering its tracks to protect the state government, and alleged that party chief Sharad Pawar was made to falsely testify about Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s whereabouts.
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