Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh on Thursday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Singh, who was struck out as Mumbai Police Commissioner in the wake of the Antilia bomb scare case, has also challenged the government’s order transferring him from the post.
According to the plea, Deshmukh held meetings at his residence with several Mumbai police officials, including Waze, in February this year. In these meetings, Deshmukh instructed the officers to collect Rs 100 crore per month from various establishments. Deshmukh regularly interfered with police functioning and often misused his office. Deshmukh’s conduct warranted a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the plea read.
The plea filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Dr. Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil, alleged that Deshmukh is not trustworthy to hold the position of Home Minister of State as evident from the material that has come to light showing that he was abusing his powers by calling and instructing officers to extort money from common citizens and business persons.
Singh has also sought the complete file containing the report of Rashmi Shulka Commissioner of (Intelligence), State Intelligence Department as well as the connected file of the Home Department as interim relief. He further seeks for an independent agency to take custody of the entire CCTV footage of Deshmukh’s residence to prevent its destruction.
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner on Monday filed a Petition before the Apex Court claiming that Deshmukh “pressurised” him to probe the role of certain BJP leaders and to “somehow implicate” them in the case of the death of MP Mohan Delkar and he “did not succumb” to the pressure.
However, the Apex court refused to entertain his plea seeking a CBI probe into the alleged corruption claims levelled by him against Deshmukh.”Liberty to approach the High Court granted,” the top court said in its order. The SC said that there is no doubt that the matter is “quite serious” but Singh should approach the Bombay HC first.
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During the hearing, the Bench also said that it’s “unfortunate” that the Supreme Court’s judgement on police reform has not been implemented.
Param Bir has also written a letter to Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Deshmukh used to frequently interfere with police investigations and repeatedly call officers and give them instructions on the course of action to be followed by them while conducting investigation.