The Maharashtra Police have filed a first information report against former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh after an officer of the force accused him of corruption, PTI reported on Thursday, citing an official. The FIR has also been registered against Deputy Commissioner of Police Parag Manere and 26 other officials.
In his complaint, police inspector Bhimrao Ghadge alleged that Singh, when posted as the Thane police chief, had asked him to not chargesheet certain individuals against whom FIRs were registered. Ghadge, who was posted in the Thane Police Commissionerate during 2015-2018, claimed that five FIRs were registered against him and he was suspended after he refused to follow Singh’s orders. He also alleged that several police officials had indulged in various acts of corruption.
Ghadge had filed a Zero FIR at Akola and it has been transferred to the Thane city police. Zero FIR is a mode of lodging FIR in any police station irrespective of the offence committed in that area or any other area. The complainant is currently posted at the Akola police control room.
The FIR was registered under 27 sections, including criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and under the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989.
Singh was involved in another controversy after he accused former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption. On March 20, Singh had accused Deshmukh of extorting money from bars, restaurants and hookah parlours in Mumbai. In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, 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.
Vaze was suspended and sent into the custody of the National Investigation Agency for his alleged role in placing the explosives-laden vehicle at Carmichael Road, near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai, on March 15. 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. Singh had made the allegations after his transfer.
Though Deshmukh has constantly denied any impropriety, he resigned from the state Cabinet on April 5 after the Bombay High Court directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations against him. On April 8, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Maharashtra government and Deshmukh’s petitions to cancel the CBI inquiry against him.
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