The former Mumbai Police Commissioner was vindictive, corrupt and defamed the force, Inspector tells SC
A Mumbai police Inspector on Thursday accused the city’s former top cop and his ex-boss, Param Bir Singh, in the Supreme Court of trying to ‘silence’ him by framing fake cases against him.
Mr. Singh, who was shunted out from the post of the Mumbai Police Commissioner following his corruption complaint against then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, had recently approached the Supreme Court. He wants the apex court to transfer pending internal enquiries and investigations against him to another State. He alleged that the Uddhav Thackeray government was trying to frame him in false cases for complaining against their senior leader, Mr. Deshmukh, who had to resign as Home Minister in the wake of the controversy.
Now, Inspector Bhimraj Rohidas Ghadge, represented by advocate Vipin Nair, has, in turn, accused Mr. Singh of being vindictive and corrupt during his tenure as Mumbai police chief.
Mr. Ghadge said the investigation against Mr. Singh should not be transferred at any cost. He said he wants to intervene in the petition filed by Mr. Singh in the apex court and make submissions against the latter.
“The intervenor [Mr. Ghadge] has enough reasons to submit that the petitioner [Mr. Singh] has done great disservice to his cadre and to his State all these years, and had defamed the police force through corrupt practices during his entire service period,” Mr. Ghadge alleged.
Mr. Ghadge said his former chief had “used his position and uniform to implicate the intervenor in several false and frivolous cases… the petitioner is trying to pose himself as an upright and honest police officer”. He said he had suffered at the hands of Mr. Singh because he did not oblige the latter by “favouring anti-social elements”.
The Inspector, who has 27 years of service, said he had to even go to the extent of complaining to the National and State Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes bodies against the ‘enormous’ victimisation and injustice meted out to him within the police establishment under Mr. Singh.
Mr. Ghadge accused Mr. Singh of interfering in his investigations in several high-profile cases to save certain powerful people accused in them.
He said the persons who were accused in the cases which he was investigating — builders and sand-mafia — were ‘pressurised’ by Mr. Singh to file complaints against him. The police officer said he was thrown into prison for 14 months on one of these cases until he was acquitted by a Sessions Court in 2017.
The police officer said he had even approached the Bombay High Court with a plea to prosecute Mr. Singh for “false implication, misuse of powers and offences punishable under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 12 1989”. The HC, in August 2018, had directed the DGP, Maharashtra, to “personally look into the intervenor’s representations and take an appropriate decision thereon within eight weeks”.
“For having harassed and tormented the applicant [Mr. Ghadge] and his family, the criminal complaint filed against the petitioner [Mr. Singh] should be allowed to continue, wherever they have been registered,” the intervention application said.
The police officer submitted that cases cannot be transferred outside the State or handed over to the CBI as a matter of routine.
