New Delhi: More troubles brewing for former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing three preliminary enquiry (PE) against him and several others to probe allegations of extortion and criminal misconduct.
“The agency has registered three PEs against Singh, Jitendra Navlani, another Mumbai Police officer Pradeep Sharma, who was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA), and others to probe the allegations of extortion and criminal misconduct,” a CBI source told The New Indian on Wednesday.
The source, however, refused to share the details of the complaint.
The development comes days after the CBI registered five cases against Singh. All these cases were previously registered by Mumbai Police.
Last month, amid opposition from Maharashtra, the Supreme Court transferred the investigation against Singh to the CBI and put all departmental proceedings against him on hold.
In four cases, Singh has been booked for extortion while the fifth case is registered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act (PAA), in which he is accused along with 24 others.
Singh is facing multiple cases of extortion, corruption and misconduct, and was removed as the Mumbai Police chief over his alleged mishandling of the bomb scare case outside Antila, the residence of Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani in which suspended Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze is being prosecuted by the NIA.
Singh had levelled corruption allegations against former home minister Anil Deshmukh in a letter sent to the chief minister. A petition was then filed in the Bombay High Court, which ordered a CBI probe against Deshmukh.
Following the episode, the Maharashtra police had registered five FIRs alleging extortion, corruption and misconduct on the part of Singh.
While transferring the case, the top court had said, “The objective is to embolden and gain the people’s confidence in the police force by an impartial investigation which is necessary.”
The top court, while refusing to revoke Singh’s suspension also stated that CBI must hold an impartial inquiry as to whether these FIRs are repercussions of Singh having raised the red flag.
“We are not observing anything on merit,” said a bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh.
The bench also ruled that future FIRs against Singh would also be transferred to the central agency.
The Supreme Court also rejected the state government’s argument that “the FIRs registered really have to be appreciated in a scenario where when a person loses power, the persons who suffer at his hand come up with their hands and FIRs are registered”.