Param Bir gets relief from arrest till Monday

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state of Maharashtra to refrain from arresting former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh till the next hearing on Monday in connection with a case under the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) Act filed against him on the basis of an Akola cop’s complaint .

The complainant, inspector BR Ghadge, posted at Akola city police control room, belongs to SC community. He has alleged that as he had refused to follow Singh’s illegal orders to benefit some accused in a criminal case, Singh conspired with others and registered extortion and corruption cases against him in 2015.

Earlier on Friday, the vacation bench of justice SJ Kathawalla and justice SP Tavade had asked the state if they were willing to continue their stand taken on May 19, that no coercive action would be taken against Singh in the case. However, after special public prosecutor Darius Khambatta for the state said that the statement could not be continued, the bench directed the petition filed by Singh seeking the quashing of the first information report (FIR) against him to be kept last on the list of cases they would hear on their last day as vacation court judges.

Singh’s counsel, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, started the arguments around 10.15pm, during which he stressed that the FIR on Ghadge’s complaint was at the behest of the state government as Singh had refused to withdraw the letter he had written to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on March 20. In the letter, Singh had alleged that the then home minister Anil Deshmukh had asked Mumbai Police officers to extort ₹100 crore every month from establishments.

Jethmalani corroborated the claim of mala fides of the state government by referring to the conversation of Maharashtra director general of police Sanjay Pandey, who allegedly asked Singh to withdraw the claims in the letter written to CM. Jethmalani further stated that the FIR, which mentions alleged atrocities under the SC and ST Act by Singh in 2015-16 when he Thane Police commissioner, was filed belatedly. This which shows that Ghadge was prompted to file the complaint by the government to scuttle the investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) ordered by HC on April 5 against Deshmukh. Jethmalani concluded that Ghadge’s claim that he was from the Mahar community was not mentioned in his previous complaints.

However, Khambatta refuted the submissions. He argued that the complaint by Ghadge clearly made out cognisable offences.

At 11.55pm, the bench stopped the hearing and said that at the stroke of midnight, they would cease to be vacation judges. “As the case is already being heard, we direct the state to refrain from arresting Singh till the next hearing on Monday,” the bench said.

Param Bir Singh.