Parambir Singh is new Mumbai Commissioner of Police

High-profile and controversial police officer Parambir Singh was appointed as the new Mumbai police chief on Saturday. This is the first big appointment that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray made in the state police since he took over.

Media-savvy Singh, an officer of the 1988-batch of IPS, succeeds Sanjay Barve, who hung up his boots. Barve was given two extensions by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in view of the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls and later, the fluid political situation.

On Friday, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh made it clear that Barve would not be given another extension. Singh was Director-General of Anti-Corruption Bureau and as Mumbai Police Commissioner, brings with him a wide range of experience having served in Crime Branch-CID and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Special Operations Squad (SOS) besides handling the law and order of the entire state.

Recently, as ACB chief, he had given a clean chit to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was facing a probe in the multi-crore irrigation scam.
Others who were in the race included Sadanand Date, Rashmi Shukla, D Kanakratnam and K Venkatesam.

In the past, Singh had held posts like Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) and Thane Police Commissioner. During the 26/11 terror attacks, Singh was posted as Additional Commissioner of Police and countered the terrorists in Oberoi-Trident. After the incident, the then Mumbai police chief, late Hasan Gafoor, in an interview to a magazine, has claimed that some officers refused to hit the ground during the attacks. Among others, he had named Singh. His father, Hoshiyar Singh had filed a defamation case against Gafoor in Chandigarh that was later stayed by the Bombay High Court.

Singh's boss, Hemant Karkare, the then ATS chief, laid down his life during the terror attacks. Karkare and Singh were also involved in the investigations of the Malegaon blasts case in which Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Lt Col Prasad Purohit are accused.

In August 2018, in a press conference, he read out letters seized by Pune police in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case, in which there were revelations of a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and overthrow the elected government. In fact, the Bombay High Court rapped him for this.