CBI takes over probe against Param Bir Singh, five cases filed again
Singh is facing multiple cases of extortion, corruption and misconduct, and was removed from the post of Mumbai police chief over his alleged mishandling of the Antilia bomb scare case in 2021
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday took over Maharashtra police’s cases against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, agency officials familiar with the matter said, adding that they re-registered the five FIRs against him filed by Mumbai police.
Singh is facing multiple cases of extortion, corruption and misconduct, and was removed from the post of Mumbai police chief over his alleged mishandling of the Antilia bomb scare case in 2021 -- in which police officer Sachin Waze is an accused. Singh was then suspended from service in December 2021 and faces a show-cause notice of dismissal from service.
The probe has been handed over to the Special Crimes-3 unit of CBI in Delhi, which will travel to Mumbai and record statements of all named persons, including Singh, said a senior agency official.
The official added that the agency has re-registered the five FIRs of the Maharashtra police, which were lodged against Singh between April and August last year with allegations ranging from financial irregularities to extortion, criminal conspiracy, as well as violations of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Act.
After his suspension in 2021, Singh had written a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that NCP leader Anil Deshmukh, who was the state’s home minister at the time, had asked him and Waze to collect ₹100 crore from Mumbai’s hotels and bars each month.
The 58-year-old Indian Police Service (IPS) officer then went absconding for almost six months before finally showing up in November last year as he appeared before a judicial commission. The Supreme Court had granted him protection from arrest.
On March 24 this year, the Supreme Court had asked the CBI to investigate the allegations against Singh while ordering Maharashtra police to hand over all the cases and related documents to the premier anti-corruption agency.
While ordering a CBI probe in the matter, a bench of justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh said on March 24: “Exigencies and advancement of principles of justice and fair play and impartial inquiry require the investigation to be transferred to the CBI...We are not saying that the appellant (Singh) is a whistleblower... What is the truth, who is at fault, how does such a scenario come to prevail…is something the investigation must go into.”
The court noted that a “murky churning” of disputes between Deshmukh and Singh turned into a “battle royale, giving rise to unfortunate proceedings”, while asking CBI to conduct an “impartial inquiry” into all aspects of criminal cases against Singh.
Both CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are already investigating allegations against Deshmukh. The former state home minister was arrested by the ED on November 2.
