FIR registered against Param Bir Singh over cop's complaint

Police inspector Bhimrao Ghadge in his complaint had made a series of allegations of corruption against Singh

In what compounds troubles for Param Bir Singh, the Commandant General of Home Guards, the Akola police station has registered an FIR against him and 26 other police officers and men for alleged corruption.

The complaint has been lodged by Police Inspector Bhimrao Ghadge.

The police personnel has been booked under sections like criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence of the Indian Penal Code, and sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989.

Also Read | Maharashtra orders inquiry against Param Bir Singh over graft charges

In his complaint addressed to the Maharashtra government and the Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey, Ghadge, who was posted in Thane police during 2015-18, had made a series of allegations against Singh, who was then the Thane City’s Commissioner of Police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Parag Manere has also been named in the FIR.

The City Kotwali police station in Akola in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra registered the Zero FIR, which is expected to be transferred to Thane Police.

According to the allegations, Ghadge was asked by Singh not to charge sheet certain persons, however, when he refused to comply, he was suspended.

Ghadge, who is now posted in the Akola police control room, has also alleged that after he refused to obey Singh's instructions, five FIRs were registered against him and he was suspended.

Yet another probe

This is yet another addition to the series of probes that involves the former Mumbai Police chief.

Singh, an officer of the 1988-batch of IPS, had alleged that \then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had fixed a ‘collection target’ of Rs 100 crore per month for Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, who has been arrested by the NIA in connection with the planting of Scorpio with 20-odd gelatin sticks and a threatening letter near Antilia, the residence of Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani and the murder of SUV owner Mansukh Hiren. The Bombay High Court has ordered a CBI probe and the federal agency has recorded the statement of Singh and Deshmukh.

In a report, Mumbai Police chief Hemant Nagrale, had stated that Vaze, the head of the Crime Intelligence Unit of Crime Branch-CID, was bypassing all other officers and directly reporting to Singh and taking instructions.

Besides, the Maharashtra government has already appointed a high-level enquiry committee (HLEC) by Justice Kailash Chandiwal, a retired judge of the Bombay High Court, to probe into the allegations against Deshmukh.

The State government has also asked Pandey to conduct a preliminary inquiry" into a complaint lodged by Assistant Police Inspector Anup Dange against Singh, on corruption allegations.