Maharashtra HC Can’t Trace Param Bir Singh, Defence Says Not Yet ‘Absconder’
Param Bir Singh's counsel Mahesh Jethmalani said he had not been declared as an absconder yet.
Since there is suspicion that Param Bir Singh may have left the country, a lookout notice has been issued.
(Photo: PTI)
The whereabouts of former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh were not known, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday, 20 October, told the Bombay High Court.
The state government told the Bombay High Court that it will not be able to adhere to the assurance it had provided in May that it would not take any coercive action against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.
“In view of other developments, we are getting reports that he is not traceable. Therefore, we cannot give a statement in his matter,” Senior Advocate Darius Khambata, representing the state government said, stated media reports.
Param Bir Singh's counsel Mahesh Jethmalani said he had not been declared as an absconder yet and hence should continue the assurance provided in the statement till further hearing. He asserted that Singh was summoned twice and had responded.
Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had flagged reports that Singh had gone on leave from his post of DG Home Guards citing ill health on 5 May. Since there is suspicion that he may have left the country, a lookout notice has been issued.
The senior IPS officer filed a petition seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and relevant IPC sections on a complaint filed by police inspector Bhimrao Ghadge.
Ghadge had levelled allegations of corruption against Singh when he was Thane police commissioner. The IPS officer is also facing at least four extortion cases in Thane and Mumbai. Five FIRs had been registered against him in Maharashtra while the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau is conducting two open enquiries against him.
His counsel argued that all the cases registered against him are "totally false and politically motivated". He claimed that the FIR was a backlash over Singh's allegations of corruption against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
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