Former Mumbai police commissioner Parambir Singh on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court about his transfer to Home Guard Department. He sought direction for immediate "unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair" CBI probe into alleged corrupt malpractices of Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh. In his petition, Singh said that his transfer was done in an "arbitrary and illegal" manner "without the completion of the minimum fixed tenure of two years".
"The said transfer was maliciously effected purportedly under Section 22N(2) of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951 with the reason that the transfer was necessitated by “administrative exigencies”. It is settled law that the orders have to stand on the reasons contained in the same and no reasons can be supplemented later," the former top cop said in the petition.
Singh also said that as commissioner of Mumbai police, he ensured that the investigation in the Ambani security threat case is carried out in a fair and transparent manner, and also did not obstructed the probe by the NIA.
The transfer is smeared with malice, and is solely based on conjectures, surmises and pure speculation, the petition further said. Singh, a 1988 batch IPS officer, was last week transferred from the post of Mumbai police commissioner in the midst of a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the recovery of an explosives-laden SUV which was found parked outside the south Mumbai residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani on February 25.
Reacting to his transfer, Deshmukh said that Singh was removed because some "serious lapses" surfaced in the police probe in the Ambani bomb scare case. But Singh hit back with a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray which has since shaken the political field in Maharashtra. Singh claimed in the letter that Deshmukh asked arrested cop Sachin Vaze to extort money to the tune of £10 million per month from various establishments in Mumbai like hotels and bars. While the constituents of the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have stood behind Deshmukh, meetings are being held by Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress to discuss how to resolve the crisis.
ATS arrested convicted cop, bookie
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) arrested a convicted cop out on parole and a bookie for the alleged murder of Mansukh Hiran whose Scorpio was found laden with explosive near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence on February 26. The arrested have been identified as Vinayak Shinde (55), a constable convicted for the fake encounter of Chhota Rajan associate Ram Lakhan Bhaiya in 2007, and Naresh Ramniklal Gore (31), a bookie. Shinde, on parole since May 2020, worked with Sachin Waze in a team led by retired encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma. ATS suspects more policemen are involved in the killing prompted by Mansukh’s reluctance to take the rap for planting the explosives. Waze is alleged to have ordered the hit but may not have been present when Mansukh was murdered.
Gore and Shinde were produced before the Thane ATS court, which remanded them in police custody till March 30. ATS chief Jaijeet Singh said bookie Gore had procured five SIM cards and handed them to Shinde who was in touch with Waze since his release on parole. These arrests are merely the tip of the iceberg, said an official, adding that more suspects, mostly cops, will be apprehended in a day or two. The two accused have not only admitted to their role but also spilled the beans on Waze and a few more cops who extended logistics support, the official said.
Waze had asked Mansukh to take responsibility for planting the explosives but he refused, officials said. There are two theories regarding Waze’s reasons for fabricating a terror case. “Waze would crack the case and become a super cop. Or he and some other cops including a senior officer were hoping to get into a private security firm being launched by a corporate,” said an official.
Preliminary investigations suggest Waze eliminated Mansukh because he feared the latter would succumb to pressure and disclose the plan. The plot to kill Mansukh was hatched on March 2 during a meeting Waze held with two colleagues. It was the same day Waze asked Mansukh to draft a letter through an advocate alleging he was under pressure from police and the media, which was not the case.
Waze’s phone records have established his location near the Ambani residence on the fateful night, an officer said. To build an alibi, he ensured that he did not receive or make any calls from his personal phone on March 4, the day of the murder, the ATS told the Thane court. In fact, there were only 8 messages on his mobile even though it was not switched off. All communication with accomplices were through SIM cards procured from Gujarat. To strengthen his defence, Waze stayed put at Dongri till late at night on March 4.
The effort to erase evidence, in fact, began much before. A day after the car was found near the Ambani house, four men from Waze’s team visited Mansukh’s shop in Thane and took away the digital video recorder linked to his CCTV and installed a new one in its place. Sources said though Waze himself did not take part in killing Mansukh, he was coordinating with the killers and a few cops over the phone. The accused policemen and a few individuals from Thane, who are yet to be arrested, are alleged to have lent logistical support in luring Mansukh to Ghodbunder Road in Thane before attacking him in a moving car and then dumping his body in the Mumbra creek. The prima facie diatom report has indicated that Mansukh was alive when he was thrown in the creek.
