How Param Bir Singh's man routed threat from 'Chhota Shakeel'

Agarwal filed a complaint against Param Bir Singh and others only after Singh was shunted following the Antilia episode

Amid mounting trouble for former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh, a CID probe has shown that one of his men had allegedly used some spoofing software to recreate gangster Chhota Shakeel's voice and location, Karachi, to make bogus extortion calls and then frame a businessman.

Sources in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said Shakeel never made the calls on behalf of the businessman, Shyam Sundar Agarwal. They were actually arranged by Sanjay Punamia, who apparently took the help of a cyber expert in manipulating the voice and virtual private network to show the caller's location as Pakistan. Punamia had claimed that Shakeel was threatening him on behalf of Agarwal.

"The investigation is underway and soon we will file a charge sheet in the case. We have also recorded the statement of the cyber expert who was closely associated with the accused and suspected to have helped them on technical aspects," said a source privy to the investigation requesting anonymity.

Last year, the Marine Drive police registered an extortion case against Singh, Sanjay Punamia, builder Sunil Jain along with two ACPs, one DCP and two PI-rank officers of Mumbai police. Punamia and Jain were arrested before the CID took over the case and took into custody the PI-rank officers of the Crime Branch - Nandkumar Gopale and Asha Korke.

Complainant Agarwal was booked by the Juhu cops in February 2021 under MCOCA, when Singh was the commissioner of Mumbai police. Singh was transferred in March following the Antilia case and the arrest of his close confidant and now-sacked API Sachin Waze.

In his complaint, Agarwal said he was framed by Singh and his men in the MCOCA case on the charge that Shakeel was threatening Punamia on his behalf. This was just a ploy to pressure Agarwal to cough up Rs 50 lakh and some properties. After Singh got embroiled in the Antilia controversy, Agarwal filed the complaint and wrote to the chief minister and home minister about the threats. An investigation showed that the case against Agarwal was false and manipulated. Later, CID found that Shakeel had never called Punamia.

The accused had used some software to match Shakeel's voice and calls were made to Punamia on behalf of Agarwal to show that the latter had close ties with the Pakistan-based gangster. This helped Singh and his men to press MCOCA charges against Agarwal.

CID found that threat calls were made to Punamia in 2016 and 2017 when Singh was the Thane police chief and cases were registered against Agarwal in Thane as well. In November 2020, another fake call was made to Punamia.

In December, Singh recorded his statement after getting protection from the Supreme Court. The court has also asked the state government not to file any charge sheet against Singh.

Nov
Month in 2020 when the spoof call was made to Punamia