Six months after he went on leave and subsequently absconded, ex-city police chief Param Bir Singh appeared before the Mumbai crime branch on Thursday to record his statement in one of the five extortion cases registered against him. The SC recently granted him protection from arrest.
Singh reached the crime branch unit 11 office in Kandivli around 11 am and left around 6 pm. While his lawyer sat outside, DCP (detection-1) Neelotpal recorded Singh’s statement in connection with a case filed by businessman Bimal Agarwal. Singh told the media he arrived from Chandigarh in the morning.
Singh, who had not reported to work since May after his transfer in March from the post of Mumbai police commissioner and his subsequent allegations of corruption against then Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, told the media that he arrived on Thursday morning from Chandigarh and straightaway informed senior police officials that he would be visiting the crime branch’s Kandivli unit to record his statement. “I will join the investigations as directed by the court,” Singh told the media after landing in Mumbai from his hometown Chandigarh.
There were also reports that Singh, who arrived in his official police sedan, went straight to his official residence at Nilima building at Malabar Hill after recording his statement at the Kandivli crime branch unit. He had told news channels on Wednesday that he was in Chandigarh and would appear in Mumbai soon.
Senior police officials said that Singh appeared calm and cooperated in the investigations. “We have recorded his statement and told him that the police will be calling him again as and when required,” said an official. The official added that this is the only case the Mumbai police is probing, the other cases of extortion against the former Mumbai CP are being probed by the state CID and the Kopri police. The ACB too is conducting two open inquiries against Singh. Sources said that the state CID and ACB are likely to summon Singh in the coming week.
The case in which Singh’s statement was recorded pertains to businessman Bimal Agarwal’s complaint that (now-dismissed) API Sachin Waze had, at Singh’s behest, extorted Rs 9 lakh from him for not conducting raids on his two restaurants and bars in Goregaon. Agarwal had stated Waze also extorted two high-end mobile phones worth Rs 2.9 lakh from him.
Surjitt Sahani
