FORMER MUMBAI Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh whose suspension was revoked Friday — nearly a year after his retirement, and Anil Deshmukh, the NCP leader who was the state Home Minister during Singh’s tenure were an inseparable duo in 2020 that was majorly under the Covid-induced lockdown. Such was the camaraderie, that Singh had managed to convince Deshmukh to come to a crime branch unit in Bandra that had seized poor quality face masks, something that a state home minister was not known to do. Things, however, went awry between them after a vehicle with gelatine sticks were found outside Antilia, the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani. As the case began unravelling, the role of some personnel from Mumbai police came to light including then assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, a close aide of Singh. Following this, there were murmurs about whether Singh knew more than that he had briefed Deshmukh and the then CM Uddhav Thackeray about it. Eventually, Singh was shunted out as Mumbai Police Commissioner. Sources said that things between Singh and Deshmukh turned sour after Deshmukh, when asked on Singh’s transfer at a media event, said there were “serious errors” committed by his office. Within a few days, Singh wrore a letter to the CM, that was widely circulated on social media, in which he alleged that Deshmukh had set a monthly bribery target of Rs 100 crore from Mumbai Police. Deshmukh eventually resigned as the home minister due to this and face cases by both the CBI and ED leading to his eventual incarceration for over a year. The letter began a spree of retaliatory measures against Singh as well which began with an FIR being registered against him at Marine Drive police station in July 2021. The FIR was registered on the complaint of Mira Bhayander-based businessman Sham Sundar Agarwal who alleged that he was falsely implicated in a case by Param Bir Singh and other policemen and they demanded money for not arresting him. The CID had filed a chargesheet in the case but did not name Singh as by then he had approached the Supreme Court which barred chargesheets to be filed against Singh. Singh’s plea before the SC was that the cases against him be transferred to the CBI as the MVA state government was biased against him since he was a “whistle blower” in the Deshmukh case. A second FIR was registered at Goregaon police station in August 2021 against Singh, dismissed police officer Sachin Waze and two others in an extortion case related to a hotelier. The probe was handed over to the crime branch which chargesheeted the case before the SC had barred any further chargesheets. Apart from these two cases, three other cases registered against Singh include one in April 2021 on the complaint of inspector Bhimrao Ghadge. Ghadge during his stint with Thane police reported to Singh, the then Thane Commissioner. Ghadge had alleged that Singh asked him to drop charges against a person and extort money. In July 2021, another FIR was registered against Singh at Kopri police station in Thane on the complaint of developer Shyamsunder Agarwal and his nephew Sharad. Agarwal had alleged that Singh and other police officers threatened to falsely implicate him in a case on the pretext of which they extorted money from him. The other case against Singh was filed based on a complaint by businessman Ketan Tanna who alleged that Singh along with other police officials and gangster Ravi Pujari, extorted money from him. The probe in these three cases was also being done by the state CID. However chargesheets were not filed in thee cases. Eventually, in April 2022, the cases along with two enquiries in corruption cases, were transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court. The CBI registered the cases afresh and recorded the statements of the complainants following which they began a probe in the matter.
