In a humiliating moment for a top IPS officer, a city Magistrate’s court on Wednesday declared Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh as a “proclaimed offender” in an extortion case.
After hearing an application filed by the Mumbai Police on a complaint by hotelier Bimal Agarwal against Singh and three other accused, additional chief metropolitan magistrate SB Bhajipale declared two of his co-accused Vinay Singh and Riyaz Bhati as “proclaimed offenders” on the ground that they had
been absconding and could not be traced.
The Mumbai Police had approached the court stating that Singh could not be traced and was not at his Malabar Hill residence since an FIR was registered against him more than three months ago.
The complaint Bimal Agarwal had alleged that Singh and dismissed police constable Sachin Waze — who is currently behind the bars for alleged involvement in the cases involving the recovery of an explosive-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s south Mumbai residence and subsequent murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran — had extorted cash and valuables worth `11 lakh from him.
Based on Agrawal’s complaint, police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Singh, Waze and two others for offences under Sections 384, 385 388, 389 (extortion), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 of the IPC.
Wednesday’s development came after three Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) by two different courts in Mumbai and one court in the neighbouring Thane city.
In all, five First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered in different police stations in Mumbai and other places. Singh has been absconding for the past seven months. A look-out circular (LoC) is already in force against him.
In their plea, the city police told the court that despite having issued multiple non-bailable warrants, Singh and two other accused continued to remain missing and their existence concealed.
Advocate Shekhar Jagtap appearing for the Mumbai Police, had told the court that in compliance with the order, the Crime Branch had deputed a team of officers to execute the warrants. The officers visited the last known addresses of the three accused, but could not find them. They also discovered that the accused had not visited their homes since the crime was registered and their whereabouts were not known.
Keeping in mind their failure to respond to various summons by the various courts, the police had urged the court that Singh and two other accused be declared “proclaimed offenders” as provided under Section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Section 82 reads thus, “If any Court has reason to believe (whether after taking evidence or not) that any person against whom a warrant has been issued by it has absconded or is concealing himself so that such warrant cannot be executed, such Court may publish a written proclamation requiring him to appear at a specified place and at a specified time not less than thirty days from the date of publishing such proclamation”. If the “proclaimed offender” fails to respond to the written proclamation within the stipulated time, the court may order attachment of any property - movable or immovable or both belonging to the proclaimed offender concerned.
After hearing the plea by the Mumbai police, Judge Bhajipale pronounced the order allowing the police to declare Singh and two other accused as “proclaimed offenders” in an extortion case.
Singh has been missing for nearly seven months now. It may be recalled that the Maharashtra Government told the Bombay High Court on October 21 that it has not been able to trace Param Bir and assured the court that it would not take coercive action against the latter. While his whereabouts are not known, he approached the high court through his lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani to mention his plea seeking the quashing of an FIR registered against him.
The Maharashtra Government-appointed Justice (retired) Kailash Uttamchand Chandiwal Commission of enquiry - which is hearing into the allegations of corruption made by him against Maharashtra’s former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh -- has issued several summons against him, fined him and even issued a bailable arrest warrant against him.
Justice (Retd) Chandiwal had not only earlier issued bailable warrant against the former police commission but had also 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.
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.