In what may come as more trouble for former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, a magistrate court in Mumbai on Saturday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him in an alleged extortion case registered in suburban Goregaon.
On October 26, a magistrate court in Thane had issued the first NBW against Mr. Singh in another alleged extortion case concerning businessman Vinay Singh and gangster Riyaz Bhatti.
The crime branch had issued two summons to Mr. Singh to join the investigation. One of the summons was sent to his official residence in Mumbai and the other to a Chandigarh address.
It is after he failed to respond to the summons, the Mumbai police have moved the court for the NBW.
Along with Mr. Singh, dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, currently lodged at the Taloja central jail, is also an accused in the Goregaon extortion case.
The case is about Bimal Agarwal, a builder-hotelier, who complained against Mr. Singh of extortion.
On October 20, the Maharashtra Government had told the Bombay High Court that Mr. Singh is not traceable and that it cannot give a statement that no coercive action will be taken against him.
The statement was made when the court was hearing a plea filed by Mr. Singh seeking to quash one FIR filed against him at two places. The plea mentioned, “The FIR refers to an event of 2015 and is belatedly registered after having failed to pressurise him to withdraw his complaint against former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.”
On March 20, 2021, Mr. Singh had written a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Mr. Deshmukh had directed Sachin Vaze to collect ₹100 crore from bars and restaurants over a month. Two warrants have been issued against Mr. Singh by a one-member judicial committee set up to probe allegations by Mr. Singh against Mr. Deshmukh.
