TOP COURT AGREES TO END CASES AGAINST ITALIAN MARINES
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to close all proceedings in India against the Italian marines who killed two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012 after being informed that compensation of ₹10 crore for the families of the victims has been deposited in the registry of the top court.
The bench of justices Indira Banerjee and MR Shah said it was of the view that the compensation money should be transferred to the Kerala high court so that disbursement could be properly monitored and not frittered away.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh to shift all cases against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or to any other state, and questioned his lack of faith in a force he served in for 30 years.
Singh alleged that the state police was prejudiced against him after he claimed that former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh was involved in corruption. CBI is currently probing the corruption charges Singh levelled against Deshmukh in a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray this March.
Declining his plea, the bench of justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian said: “You are part of Maharashtra cadre IPS [and] served the state for 30 years. It is a shocking allegation that you have no faith in your force.”
Singh, who was represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, said he filed a complaint dated March 20, 2021, accusing Deshmukh of running a “money collection scheme” through the police department. Following this, he was shunted to a low-key post in Mumbai Police’s home guards, and a departmental enquiry was initiated against him. Jethmalani said the officer in charge of the case against him pressurised him to withdraw the complaint against Deshmukh, and threatened him with several criminal cases.
The court dismissed this allegation as a “make believe story” and wondered that if a DGP-rank officer could succumb to pressure, what would happen to others.
Referring to one of the complaints against Singh, Jethmalani said the complainant was involved in five criminal cases, and had now “chosen to turn the gun against the former top cop”. To this, the bench responded: “It is said that persons who live in glass house should not throw stones at others.” Singh also asked the court to put a blanket stay on any further FIRs against him. The court said it could not grant such a prayer, as it was the magistrate’s duty to do so.
Jethamalani claimed by foisting cases against his client, an attempt was being made to subvert CBI enquiry against former Home Minister and Court must come to the protection of whistleblower. As Court refused, Singh eventually agreed to withdraw the petition.