Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh was shunted out of his post on Wednesday and has been replaced by Hemant Nagrale. Singh, who has been posted as the DG, Home Guards, had taken over from Sanjay Barve on February 29, 2020.
The move comes days after Mumbai Police encounter specialist Sachin Vaze was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the bomb scare at Mukesh Ambani’s house Antilia. Vaze was reporting directly to Param Bir Singh. It was the Param Bir-headed review committee that reinstated Sachin Vaze after 16 years despite a court order against Vaze.
Reports said Singh was transferred over Vaze’s alleged involvement in placing an explosive-laden vehicle near an industrialist’s residence in the city. Vaze was on Sunday remanded to NIA custody till March 25.
Recently, Singh made news as he spearheaded the probe into the alleged TRP scam where channels were said to be paying money to people at BARC to game the ratings. At least five news and entertainment channels were found to be involved in rigging TRPs to attract more advertisements.
Hemant Nagrale is a 1987-batch Maharashtra cadre IPS officer. He has served as Mumbai Police Commissioner for some time in 2014. He was also Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai for two years. Nagrale has received several awards like the President’s Police Medal, Vishesh Seva Padak and Antarik Suraksha Padak.