The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will decide whether the FIRs lodged by the Maharashtra Police against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh should be handed over to CBI or not and asked the Maharashtra government to keep its hands off those cases till it decides the issue.
The bench said it’s a “messy state of affairs” referring to the ongoing legal battle between Param Bir Singh with the state administration.
The Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh heard the petition filed by Singh seeking the quashing of the FIR against him registered in Mumbai or hand over the investigation to the CBI.
In the previous hearings, the Supreme Court had said it is clearly visible that the case is being jeopardized and, therefore, it should be ensured that such attempts fail.
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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the CBI, had submitted that he apprehended a cover-up by the State Police and requested for an early date.
The CBI said the probe agency is ready to take up the investigation as efforts are being made to meddle with the ongoing investigation into the extortion allegations in the case against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. The agency also cited the chat transcript of Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey given by Singh. The CBI said that this is a clear attempt by Pandey to interfere in the investigation handed over by the court.
Continuing the stay on Singh’s arrest, the court had granted interim relief to another accused Binu Nayan Varghese, and granted an interim stay on Varghese’s arrest. The court also directed all the accused to cooperate in the investigation.
Param Bir Singh’s lawyer Puneet Bali told the court that he has no objection if the investigation is done by the CBI or the FIR filed against him should be quashed.
Bali said that when the Maharashtra government is unable to do anything on the criminal case, action has been initiated in the name of departmental inquiry against Singh.
Bali said the Additional Chief Secretary and DGP refused to appear before the CBI. He said that attempts are being made to obstruct CBI proceedings. This has also been mentioned by the CBI in itself.
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Param Bir Singh had challenged the Bombay High Court’s order dated September 16 dismissing his plea against the two preliminary enquiries initiated by the Maharashtra government besides seeking the transfer of cases filed against him to the CBI.