The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Former Mumbai Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh to approach the Bombay High Court regarding the hearing of his petition. Singh had sought an urgent hearing of his petition in top court over alleged corrupt malpractices of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
• The SC requested the high court to take up the matter by Thursday.
• Hearing Singh’s Petition on Wednesday, the SC said the fact that similar cases have been entertained earlier by Supreme Court doesn’t answer the question why the petition should not be made before the high court. “We note that the allegations are very serious. But the concerned HC can hear the Matter,” the Bench said.
• Passing the order, the top court accepted the seriousness of the allegations and said that high court has the power to order an independent enquiry. “Anil Deshmukh has not been impleaded as a respondent. Petition should be before the Bombay HC under Article 226,” it said.
• Singh, a 1988 batch IPS officer who was recently shunted out from the post of Mumbai CP, had earlier approached the apex court seeking stay of the operation of his transfer order and direction to the Maharashtra government, the Centre and the CBI to immediately take in its custody the CCTV footage from the residence of Deshmukh.
• In his petition, Singh had called for an “unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair investigation” in the various “corrupt malpractices of Anil Deshmukh before the evidences are destroyed”.
• Has also urged the apex court to direct the CBI to look into the alleged wrongdoings in transfers and postings of Maharashtra police officers.
• On Saturday, Singh wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackrey and accused Deshmukh of extorting money from bars, restaurants and hookah parlours in Mumbai. He claimed that Deshmukh indulged in “malpractices” and had, in the past, asked suspended API Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month through illegal channels.
• In the letter to CM, Singh, who has now been posted as Commandant General of Home Guards, also said that he has been “made a scapegoat to divert attention from the actual wrongdoers”.
• Singh’s allegations came just a day after Deshmukh had claimed that Singh was transferred so that cases pertaining to Vaze – who was sent to NIA custody on March 15 for his alleged role in placing an explosives-laden vehicle outside the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani – could get investigated without obstruction.
• On Tuesday, Deshmukh a video, giving a timeline of his activities in February. “I was admitted in hospital from February 4 to 15, in Nagpur. Thereafter, I took a chartered plane to reach Mumbai, following which I was in home quarantine at my official residence. I attended several meetings, programmes through video conferencing, during my hospital time and quarantine time. I left home for the first time on February 28. Assembly was to start from March 1, so I started holding meetings from February 26,” he said.
• Meanwhile, ATS Maharashtra has recovered a luxury car from a factory in Daman that allegedly belongs to Sachin Vaze. The car has been brought to ATS Thane office. Experts will be brought in to examine the car on Tuesday.
• On Wednesday, a delegation of BJP leaders led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, requesting him to send a report on the current situation in Maharashtra to President Ram Nath Kovind. “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has remained silent on the entire political crisis so far. We have requested the governor to make him speak and seek a report from him,” Fadnavis said after the meeting.
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