As Param Bir Singh skips summons, Maharashtra HM meets DGP on tracking ex-Mumbai CP

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil on Tuesday chaired a meeting with the state's Director General of Police, and other Police officials to chalk out a plan for tracing Param Bir Singh, sources informed. The Mumbai Police's Crime Branch unit had sent four notices to Mumbai's former Police Commissioner to appear before them in an extortion case booked against him at Goregaon. According to police, four notices were sent to the ex-CP to four different locations - his Malabar Hill home, his Chandigarh home, his Vile Parle house, and online copies to his two email IDs. However, in spite of the notices, he failed to appear before the Police. 

Last month, Dilip Walse Patil claimed that Param Bir Singh may have escaped India."I have heard that Param Bir has fled the country. The permission of the Chief Minister of the state is necessary for any government official of the state to go abroad. Param Bir Singh did not take any such permission. This is a very serious matter," Patil said in a press conference. Since then, a manhunt has been launched for Param Bir, who now holds the position of Director General of Maharashtra Home Guard, in relation to the extortion cases registered against him. 

Param Bir Singh's accusations & probe

Earlier in April, in an 8-page letter to CM Thackeray, Param Bir Singh alleged that Anil Deshmukh had told ex-Mumbai API Sachin Vaze to accumulate Rs 100 crores a month' from 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai - collecting Rs 2-3 lakhs from each. He added that the Home Minister had said that a monthly collection of Rs 40-50 crores were achievable from such establishments and the rest could be 'collected from other sources'. While the CBI is probing into Singh's allegations against Deshmukh,  Param Bir Singh himself has been named in 4 such FIRs in connection to extortion cases - including by two bookies who accused Singh of extorting them and falsely implicating them in cricket betting cases.

Singh has already been accused by Police Inspector Bhimrao Ghadge of stopping the probe on collusion between builders & officials of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to dupe the State government of Rs. 124 crore. Ghadge alleged that Singh had ordered Ghadge to drop the names of 3 Municipal Commissioners, 12 KDMC officials and 7 builders from the charge sheet and on refusing to do so led to Ghadge's wrongful imprisonment in a frivolous case till he was acquitted by a Sessions Court in September 2017.  Singh has also been accused of allegedly demanding Rs 2 crores from one Sharad Agrawal. Maharashtra govt is already probing Param Bir Singh in the Antilia bomb scare case as to how officers like API Sachin Vaze – who has been arrested in connection with the case went rogue under his tenure.