Ahead of his appearance before the Maharashtra Government-appointed Justice (retired) Kailash Uttamchand Chandiwal Commission of enquiry, there was an intense speculation in the State political circles on Friday on whether Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh has fled the country.
Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil said that neither the Maharashtra police nor the Central investigating agencies had any knowledge about the whereabouts of Singh—against whom bailable arrest has been issued by Chandiwal Commission of Inquiry to appear before it on October 6.
"A lookout circular (LOC) has been issued against him. Along with the Ministry of Home Affairs (New Delhi), we are also looking out for him," Walse-Patil said.
The Minister said that though he had heard that the senior IPS officer might have fled the country, he was not authorised to travel abroad without an official sanction.
Accusing the BJP of having “a definite role in giving a safe passage” to Singh, State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said: “If Singh has fled India, then there has to be a definite role of BJP in giving a safe passage to him. It is quite clear that saving Singh supports the agenda of BJP”.
It may recalled that on September 7, the Chandiwal Commission – which had imposed fines on Singh for his failure to appear before it – had on Tuesday issued a bailable arrest warrant against Mumbai’s formal Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh for absenting from the hearing into the allegations of corruption made by him against Maharashtra’s former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh for the third time.
Justice (Retd) Chandiwal -- who is looking into a sensational letter written by Singh in March this year to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray accusing the former Minister of indulging in extortion – had issued bailable warrant against the former police commission for his non-appearance before the probe commission for the enquiry. The one-man commission had imposed fines of Rs 5,000 in June and Rs 25,000 twice in August for his failure to respond to the summons to appear before it. The arrest warrant issued on Tuesday is for Rs 50,000. After Singh failed to turn up before the Commission for the fourth consecutive time on September 22, the Commission had re-issued bailable arrest warrant against Singh and summoned him before it on October 6.
In March this year, the Maharashtra Government appointed a one-man commission of inquiry headed by retired judge of the Bombay High Court Kailash Uttamchand Chandiwal to probe Singh’s allegations against the former state home minister.
An IPS officer of the 1988 batch, Singh had on March 20 made a sensational allegation of corruption against State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday appointed retired judge of the Bombay High Court Kailash Uttamchand Chandiwal to probe the former CP’s charges against Deshmukh.
Following the allegations made by Singh, Deshmukh had resigned from his post as the State Home Minister on April 5, within hours after the Bombay High Court ordered a “Preliminary Enquiry” (PE) by the CBI into the serious charges of corruption made against him by Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner.
The commissioner of police had, among other things, alleged that State Home Minister Deshmukh had asked now arrested and suspended police officer Sachin Vaze last month to "collect" a staggering Rs 100 crore per month from bars, restaurants and other
sources. “The Hon’ble Home Minister expressed to Vaze that he had a target to accumulate Rs. 100 crore a month. For achieving the aforesaid target, the Hon’ble Home Minister told Shri Vaze that there are about 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai and if a sum of Rs 2-3 lakhs each was collected from each of 3 them, a monthly collection of Rs 40-50 crores was achievable. The Hon’ble Home Minister added that the rest of the collection could be made from other sources,” the former CP had written.
Deshmukh is being investigated separately by the CBI and ED in connection with the allegation of corruption made against him by Singh.