SC refuses to hear former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh's plea seeking transfer of inquiries
Jun 11, 2021
New Delhi [India], June 11 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking transfer of all inquiries against him to an independent agency outside Maharashtra.
A Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice V Ramasubramanian refused to entertain the plea of Singh for transfer of probe from state police to another agency, saying "You have been in the police force for 30 years. You can't now say you want your inquiries outside the state."
"You served the state for more than 30 years and you are now saying that you have no confidence in the state police. You can't have doubts over your own force. You are part of a Maharashtra cadre and now you don't trust the functioning of your own State? This is a shocking allegation," the Bench remarked.
It told Singh that "A person who lives in glass houses shouldn't throw stones on others."
As the Bench was not inclined to grant him relief, Singh's counsel withdrew the plea.
Approaching the top court, Singh had 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.
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 the then Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh.
The plea challenged the order passed by the State government on March 17 transferring Singh from the post of Commissioner, Mumbai Police as being violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution
Meanwhile, a Mumbai Police official filed an application before the Supreme Court claiming that Param Bir Singh misused his position as Commissioner of Police to implicate him in several false and frivolous cases.
The Bombay High Court had ordered a CBI probe into allegations of Singh against Deshmukh who had to resign as the minister.
Singh, in his earlier plea filed before the top court, had sought a CBI probe against Deshmukh who, he claimed, had asked police officers, including Sachin Waze, to extort Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants.
The top court had then asked him to go before the Bombay High Court which later ordered a CBI probe into Singh's allegations.
