Param Bir Singh

Since March 2021, there has been turmoil in Maharashtra govt. It started with then Mumbai Police Ccommissioner writing to CM Udhav Thackrey that Home minister Anil Deshmukh has asked his junior police officer to collect bribe of Rs 100 Cr in a month from Hotel and Bar Owners. After this, there was allegation and counter allegations by Anil Deshmukh and Param Bir Singh. In the mean some police officers name also started surfacing in this case. Afterwards Param Bir Singh was transferred, but he did joined the new post and went to leave. Police Dept. on instruction from above started investigation against Param Bir and implicated him in many cases where corruption was involved. This went on for few months, and suddenly from end of September 2021 Param Bir Singh became untraceable. In October he petitioned Bombay High Court, and pleaded that he should not be arrested by Mumbai Police as he is ready to co operate with them in the investigations, wherever his name is involved. But High Court refused his petition. After that there were speculation that he is absconding and left the country. In the meantime Param Bir Singh approached Supreme Court.

Yesterday the matter was heard by SC and he was granted protection from arrest and asked to join investigation into extortion charges against him. His lawyer said he is not absconding and is in India, but faces threat to his life. In his plea Param Bir Singh said “ It should not appear to court that I am afraid. I have full faith in the system. I am ready to appear before CBI court. I am being hounded. There are six cases against me.I am suffering. Please grant me protection. I was the senior most police officer and I am not going to run anywhere”. His lawyer added- “that moment he enters Maharashtra he faces threat from the Mumbai Police. There are bookies amd other who indulged in illegal activities and have filed FIRs against him.”

The SC retorted that “ How a former Police Chief could fee threatened by a force he led.If the former police commissioner of Mumbai says that he faces a threat from Mumbai Police then what kind of message does it send”. Param Bir Singh pleaded in the court that “ He had first learnt from his juniors that Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was extorting money and wrote to CM asking for action .He added he went to Sc and sought CBI enquiry. After my complain to CM Director General of Police (DGP) asked me to withdraw my complain. He asked me to make peace with Home Minister. I sent the communication to CBI and CBI registered a case against Anil Deshmukh.

His lawyer argued that  he can come out of the hole, if he is allowed to breathe.

In the end SC gave their order and by which Param Bir Singh can not arrested and he had to join the investigations for the cases registered agaist him by Mumbai Police.

Now it is to be seen when Param Bir Singh surfaces and goes to Mumbai Police.

But the crux of the matter is Maharashtra Police is corrupt to the core, and I feel in the end nothing is going to happen, here I quote from Hindi proverb which says “ Chor Chor Mausere Bhai”, translated in English it means ‘ All thieves are cousin brothers.

Given below is the details of some other Police Officers who are also untraceable like Param Bir Singh.

• GP Singh a 1994-batch IPS officer, remained on the run for weeks before the Supreme Court granted him conditional bail in September. A case was registered against G P Singh in Chhattisgarh under the Prevention of Corruption Act on June 29 after preliminary probe over alleged disproportionate assets. The bail was vacated last month. G P Singh has since been issued several summonses but he continues to ignore them.

• Mani Lal Patidar, an IPS officer, has been missing from Uttar Pradesh since November 2020 two months he was suspended after businessman Indramani Tripathi released a video accusing the police officer of demanding bribes. Tripathi was later found dead in his car with gunshot wounds. In a habeas corpus petition filed by advocate Mukut Nath Verma, he feared Patidar had gone missing as he might be in unlawful custody.
• Former Punjab Police chief Sumedh Singh Saini was arrested in August after evading arrest in a case pertaining to a fraudulent sale of a land. He was later granted bail.
• Madhukar Tandon, an IPS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, has remained elusive since he was accused of raping a tribal woman in 1997. Police have claimed he has been untraceable but Tandon has managed to sell property worth crores in Jaipur
• Arvind Sen, a 2013 batch IPS officer, surrendered to a Lucknow court after evading police for a month in January when a reward of ₹50,000 was announced for any information leading to the arrest of suspended deputy inspector general. Sen was evading the police since his name figured in a tender scam. Sen was declared a “proclaimed offender” in December 2020.

Now it will be interesting to know what happens next in the case of Param Bir Singh after he surfaces and  lands in Mumbai.

Waiting, for your views on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai,India

23^rd November 2021