Extortion case: Charge sheet filed against Param Bir and Vaze
The 1895-pages long charge sheet contains witness’ statements, transcripts of audio clips of former Mumbai CP and API
MUMBAI: The crime branch (CB) on Saturday filed a charge sheet against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, dismissed assistant police inspector (API) Sachin Vaze and two others in an extortion case filed by an hotelier. This is the first charge sheet filed against Singh, who has five first information reports (FIRS) registered against him in Mumbai and Thane police stations between April 28 and August 20, 2021.
“We have collected evidence and recorded statements of many witnesses to establish how Singh and Vaze were running an extortion racket,” said special public prosecutor Shekhar Jagtap. Singh had recorded his statement in the case last week.
The crime branch collected 69 audio clips of conversations between Vaze, complainant Bimal Agarwal and the witness, from whom Vaze allegedly extorted ₹35 lakh. The transcript of the audio clips forms part of the charge-sheet.
According to the charge sheet, witness stated that Vaze threatened to arrest him in a case registered by the Property Cell of the Mumbai police against cricket bookies though he claimed to have nothing to do with it. The witness said that Vaze reportedly sent him a message asking him to pay ₹2 crore if he wanted to avoid being arrested. The witness said that he was forced to pay the amount which he handed over to Kalpesh Patel, one of the accused in the case. During the probe, the Mumbai CB also recorded statements of several bar owners, many of whom disclosed that Vaze collected monthly “protection amounts” from them at the behest of Param Bir Singh, whom Vaze reportedly referred to as “Number one.”
This assumes importance in view of the fact that in his statements to the Enforcement Directorate, Vaze had claimed that he collected money from bar owners in Mumbai, based on the instructions of former home minister Anil Deshmukh. CB officials said the 1,895 pages long charge sheet against Singh and others contained statements of dozens of witnesses and was filed before the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court.
Vaze was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on March 13, in connection with his alleged role in planting explosives (gelatine sticks without a timer or detonator) in an SUV outside the house of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in February, and the subsequent murder of Thane trader Mansukh
Hiran to whom the car belonged.
On August 25, the Goregaon police registered an extortion case against Singh, Vaze and others based on a complaint by hotelier Bimal Agarwal, who alleged that the accused extorted ₹11.92 lakh from him by threatening to register cases against two bars he owned in partnership with others. The offence had reportedly taken place between January 2020 and March 2021, the police had said. The case was later transferred to CB Unit 11 for investigation.
Besides Singh and Vaze, others charge-sheeted in the case include Alpesh Patel and Sumit Singh alias Chintu. While Vaze is in judicial custody, Patel and Sumit Singh are out on bail. The police are yet to file a charge sheet against two others accused in the case, namely Vinay Singh and Riyaz Bhati. Singh, who was recently suspended by the state from his post as the Director General of Maharashtra Home Guard. He showed up before CB investigators last week after the SCT granted him protection from arrest.