SC rejects plea of ex-Mumbai commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking CBI probe

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking transfer of all cases against him to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any other state, saying "you can't have doubts over your own force."

A vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian while hearing Singh's plea noted it as "shocking" that a person who served in the Maharashtra police force for over 30 years, is now stating that he has no trust in the state police.

"The person living in a glass house shouldn't throw stones at others," the bench asserted.

Singh alleged that the police force was prejudiced against him after he claimed that former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh was involved in corruption.

During the virtual hearing, senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Singh, argued that cases are being registered against his client and he is facing punishment for writing the letter to the Maharashtra chief minister in connection with Deshmukh.

The counsel also said that the officer in charge of the case lodged against him had pressurised Singh to withdraw the complaint against the former home minister and threatened him with several criminal cases.

To this, the court asked if a DGP-rank officer could succumb to pressure, what would happen to others on the force.

On March 20, the IPS officer had sent a 'letter-bomb' , in which he had alleged that Deshmukh had reportedly asked an arrested-suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze ''to collect'' Rs 100 crore per month from bars and hookah parlours in the city, which had ignited a massive political furore.

Later, Deshmukh had dismissed Mr Singh's allegations as "an attempt to save himself from the ramifications of the Antilia bomb scare case and the subsequent death of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran.

On his part, Mr Singh followed it up by filing a plea in the Supreme Court claiming, among other things, he was pressurised to probe the role of certain Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and to implicate them in the case of February 22 suicide of Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar in a Mumbai hotel.

The apex court had also refused to entertain his earlier plea and while terming his allegations as of a "serious nature", directed him to first approach the Bombay High Court.(UNI)