Mumbai cop moves SC opposing Param Bir Singh's plea for transfer of inquiries

A Mumbai police officer has moved the Supreme Court on Thursday opposing a pending plea of former commissioner of police Param Bir Singh for transfer of all inquiries and investigations to any other state outside Maharashtra.

An application has been filed by police official Bhimraj Rohidas Ghadge submitting that he is opposing the reliefs sought by former Mumbai police commissioner as they are “not only misconceived but also likely to cause a serious miscarriage of justice”.

The application filed through advocate Vipin Nair said that the top court should disallow/reject the plea of Singh as “it is a pure abuse of the due process of law and deserves to be dismissed with costs”.

Ghadge claimed that he has spent his entire career of 27 years, with the Mumbai Police/Home Department and alleged that he “has suffered enormous injustice and victimization at the hands of the present Petitioner (Param Bir Singh), since the applicant had not obliged him by favouring anti-social elements”.

The plea further alleged, “The intervenor has enough reasons to submit that the Petitioner herein has done great disservice to his cadre and to his State all these years, and had defamed the police force, through corrupt practices during his entire service period”.

He alleged that Singh has used “his position and uniform” to implicate him in several false and frivolous cases.

Ghadge in his plea alleged several cases of victimisation by Singh including by-passing of his seniority and appointing of 11 police inspectors juniors to him as Senior Police Inspectors, who were made in-charge of their respective police stations in 2014.

Also read: SC judge recuses from hearing ex-Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh's plea on witch-hunt

The cop said that he was then attached to Bazarpeth Police Station, Kalyan under the Police Commissionerate, Thane whereas Singh was working as Commissioner of Police, Thane at the relevant time in 2015 and he had made several representations but nothing happened.

“As many as 39 police inspectors came to be transferred of which 11 were, therefore, once again preferred a representation on June 29, 2015, to the petitioner stating that he was subjected to injustice inasmuch as 11 police inspectors junior to him were appointed as senior police inspectors. Further, the applicant had a blemishless career with good confidential reports,” he said.

Ghadge said that he had specifically made a grievance that he was denied appointment as senior police inspector merely because he belonged to “Mahar” Scheduled Caste.

He said that he approached Maharashtra State SC-ST Commission which directed Singh to post him as Senior Police Inspector and submit the compliance report.

“The petitioner was very much annoyed after seeing the order of the Chairman of SC-ST Commission in which some adverse remarks were also observed against him. The petitioner developed prejudice and bore a deep rooted grudge since then, against the Intervenor”, he said.

Ghadge in his plea made several other allegations against Singh and said that in one corruption case he was to stop the ongoing investigation and ensure that the names of three Municipal Commissioners, 12 officials of Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation and 7 builders are dropped from the charge sheet.

“Furthermore, since the Intervenor herein had refused to oblige the petitioner so as to remove the names of the accused persons from the FIRs, investigations of which were entrusted to him and not to file chargesheet against them, the petitioner hatched a conspiracy with his subordinates to place the intervenor under suspension and thereby, take away the investigations of such cases from his hands and instigated such disgruntled elements to lodge false and frivolous complaints against the intervenor”, he said.

The applicant said that accordingly four offences came to be registered against him within a span of 10 days and was placed under suspension on the very day on which the first offence was registered on August 23, 2015, that too on the basis of the complaint lodged by one Madan Darade, who was an accused in an offence registered at Bazarpeth Police Station.

“The most striking feature in registration of offences against the intervenor was that the complaints were lodged by no other than accused persons against whom offences were already registered and investigations were pending with the intervenor”, he said.

On May 18, Supreme Court judge Justice B R Gavai had recused himself from hearing a plea filed by Singh.

Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer, was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner on March 17 and was made the General Commander of Maharashtra State Home Guard after he levelled allegations of corruption and misconduct against then Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh.

The Bombay High Court had ordered a CBI probe into allegations of Singh against Deshmukh who had to resign as the minister.

The senior police officer, in his fresh plea before the top court, has alleged that he has been made to face several inquiries by the state government and its instrumentalities and sought their transfer outside Maharashtra and a probe into them by an independent agency like the CBI.

Singh has been facing inquiries, including the one under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in a case of 2015 and he has termed this as a witch-hunt by the state agency.