‘Param Bir Singh’s offences as Thane top cop cognisable’
MUMBAI: The counsel for the Maharashtra government has claimed that the documents provided by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh along with his petition to seek the quashing of a case under the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against him itself shows that the cop had committed cognisable offences.
During the hearing on Singh’s petition on Friday, the state pointed to the fact that as police inspector BR Ghadge, the complainant in the case, had refused to comply with the former top cop’s orders to shield corrupt developers in Kalyan-dombivli civic body, he was charged with false cases at the behest of Singh, who was the then Thane Police commissioner.
The state further submitted that Singh was aware that Ghadge belonged to the Mahar community (categorised as SC). The state also argued that as per Singh’s documents, it is also proved that Ghadge’s complaints to the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in 2017 and 2018 against the former top cop were not heeded.
While arguing on behalf of the state, special public prosecutor and former advocate general, Darius Khambatta had informed the bench of justice SJ Kathawalla and justice SP Tavade that the claims made by Singh’s counsel, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, were far from the truth.
Singh’s counsel had argued that the first information report (FIR) against him for allegedly committing atrocities under the SC/ST Act on Ghadge were baseless and aimed at heckling the former top cop for complaining against ex-home minister Anil Deshmukh. In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in March, Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had asked Mumbai Police officers to extort ₹100 crore every month from establishments. Jethmalani had tried to impress upon the bench that the atrocities case was forced upon Singh by Ghadge as the former top cop refused to withdraw his letter. Jethmalani said that none of the complaints by Ghadge from 2016-18 against Singh and the false cases registered against him had mentioned that he belonged to an SC community, and hence, filing the complaint after five years of the incident clearly pointed out that it was meant to put pressure on Singh.
However, Khambatta pointed to the letters and complaints which Jethmalani referred to and showed HC that Singh not only knew about his junior officer’s caste but had also asked both reserved and open category officers to probe the various allegations foisted upon Ghadge.
In all, four FIRS were registered against Ghadge in 2016 and charge sheets in the cases were filed against him. He spent over a year in jail and was later acquitted in one of the trials. Khambatta said that the state had then appealed against the acquittal and Jethmalani was misleading the court.
As the hearing had started late on Friday, the bench stopped it at 11.55pm and posted it for the hearing on Monday. Singh’s plea will be heard by a division bench headed by justice SS Shinde.