Bookie, 2 bizmen accuse Param Bir of extortion
MUMBAI: A cricket bookie and two businessmen from Mumbai have written to Maharashtra director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey, alleging that former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh ran a recovery and extortion racket in Thane while serving as that city’s police chief between 2015 and 2018.
The three have also named a former encounter specialist and a serving inspector of Thane Police of being part of Singh’s alleged illegal activities. The bookie and businessmen alleged that the cops extorted crores of rupees from them.
Police sources said Pandey has entrusted the complaints to state crime Investigation department (CID) for inquiry.
Singh, who is posted as the commandant general of Maharashtra home guards, did not respond to calls and messages for response over allegations.
The complainants – bookie Sonu Jalan and businessman Ketan Tanna and Munir Ahmed Pathan – had met the DGP Pandey last month and filed their complaints against Singh. As per their complaints (of which HT has copies), the three alleged that on Singh’s instructions, the two other cops named in the complaint, had taken “contracts” for recovery of money from private individuals.
These officers, the complaints stated, would call up businessmen on the pretext of inquiry in a fake complaint and then extort them by threatening to implicate them in false cases. The complainants have claimed that under Singh’s leadership, the two police officers would also allegedly extort money from those who had received calls from Ravi Pujari for extortion, claiming that they had links with the gangster.
Jalan, who was arrested by Thane Police in 2018 in a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) case, stated that Singh, with the help of these “corrupt” officers, manipulated complaints with the intention of extortion from innocent persons.
A first information report (FIR) has already been registered against Singh on a complaint by Akola police inspector BR Ghadge, who had alleged that as he had refused to follow Singh’s “illegal” orders to benefit some accused in a criminal case, the former Thane top cop conspired with others and registered extortion and corruption cases between August 23 and September 3, 2015, against him. Ghadge claimed that the accused had falsely implicated him to harass him.
Recently, Singh was removed from the post of Mumbai Police commissioner following the
Antilia explosives scare and the murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran. Hiran was in possession of the vehicle in which explosives were found outside billionaire Mukesh Ambani residence. Hiran reported the vehicle stolen around a week before it was found with the explosives in late February. He was found dead on March 5.
Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze has been named as the main accused in both cases. After Singh was removed as the commissioner, he wrote a letter to the chief minister, alleging that the state’s then home minister Anil Deshmukh had instructed Vaze and some other officers to extort money from establishments. Deshmukh has resigned and the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the allegations against him.