New Delhi: The Supreme Court
today rejected a petition by ex-Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh to transfer all
cases against him to the CBI. “After having served for more than 30 years, you
do not have confidence in Maharashtra Police? It is shocking,” the Supreme
Court responded sharply to the petition, which was later withdrawn.
Param Bir Singh was unceremoniously removed as Mumbai's top
cop in March amid multiple investigations linked to a security scare outside
the home of Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man. As the controversy thickened,
Mr Singh made some explosive corruption allegations against ex-Maharashtra Home
Minister Anil Deshmukh, plunging the Uddhav Thackeray government into crisis.
Mr Deshmukh had told policemen to extort ? 100 crore from bars and restaurants,
the former top cop had alleged.
He then claimed he has been targeted and harassed because of
the allegations he had made. In his petition, he had told the top court to
transfer all cases against him to the CBI, which is already probing allegations
against Mr Deshmukh.
Mahesh Jethmalani, Param Bir Singh's lawyer, told the Supreme
Court today that Mr Singh was “pressurised by an inquiry officer to withdraw
his letter against Anil Deshmukh or more cases would be filed against him”. The
ex-top cop “can't keep on facing one case after the other just because he is a
'whistleblower' in the matter,” the lawyer further said.
“It is commonly said, those who live in glass houses should
not throw stones at others,” said a vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and
V Ramasubramanian in response.
When the court was told that “the money collection process
went on” as mentioned in Mr Singh's letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray,
the Supreme Court shot back saying: “You were commissioner of police. What were
the steps you had taken to stop it?”
“If the person of rank of DGP can be pressurised, then there
will be nobody who can't be pressurised. Don't make up stories,” the court
said.
On transfer of the cases, the bench further said: “These are
two different things. The inquiry against the former minister is different and
the inquiry against you is different. You have served in the police force for
over 30 years. You should not have doubt on the police force. You cannot say
now that you want inquiries to be done outside the state.”
Mr Singh, in his earlier petition filed before the top court,
had sought a CBI probe against Mr Deshmukh. The top court had then asked him to
go before the Bombay High Court, which later ordered a probe by the central
investigating agency.
Mr Deshmukh, however, had denied any wrongdoing but he
resigned as the state's Home Minister.
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