Former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh with Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh (File)
Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court today said it would hear on Wednesday the PIL filed by former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh seeking a CBI probe against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who he claimed asked police officer Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants.
Mr Singh filed the criminal Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the high court on March 25.
He claimed Mr Deshmukh had asked police officers, including suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, who has been arrested by the NIA in the case of bomb scare near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai, to collect Rs 100 crore each month from bars and restaurants.
The plea also raised the issue of alleged corruption in police transfers and postings in the state.
Senior counsel Vikram Nankani, appearing for Mr Singh, mentioned the petition before a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni and sought urgent hearing.
Chief Justice Datta asked Vikram Nankani about the prayers sought in the petition and if the plea is maintainable.
Mr Nankani said the main plea sought in the petition is for a CBI probe into the serious allegations levelled by a senior IPS officer against a state minister.
“We will satisfy the court with arguments on the maintainability of the petition,” Mr Nankani said.
The high court then posted the plea for hearing on Wednesday.
Mr Singh had initially approached the Supreme Court, alleging he was transferred from the post of Commissioner Police of Mumbai on March 17 and shunted to the Home Guards department after he complained to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other senior leaders about the “corrupt malpractices” of Anil Deshmukh.
The top court had termed the matter as quite serious, but asked Param Bir Singh to approach the high court.
Mr Singh then filed the plea in the high court, reiterating his allegations against Mr Deshmukh and seeking an “immediate, unbiased, impartial” probe by the CBI against Mr Deshmukh, who is an NCP leader.
In his plea, Mr Singh also accused Anil Deshmukh of routinely interfering in police investigations and putting pressure on him to implicate BJP leaders in the case of suicide of Dadra and Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar.
Mr Singh also sought a direction from the high court to the CBI to secure CCTV footage of Anil Deshmukh’s residence from earlier this year before it was “destroyed”, and a direction to the state government to produce all records of communication received from IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in March 2020.
In February last year, Rashmi Shukla levelled allegations of malpractices in police postings and transfers against Anil Deshmukh and also informed her superiors about it, but soon afterwards she was transferred, the plea claimed.
The court should pass directions to ensure that in future police officials are not transferred on account of “pecuniary benefits to any politician”, it said.
Anil Deshmukh has denied the allegations against him.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)