Mumbai: Param Bir Singh, other top cops booked for extortion, cheating

The Marine Drive police on Thursday booked former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh and other serving officers on charges of extortion cheating forgery criminal conspiracy and disobeying the law along with other stringent Sections of the Indian Penal Code The other officers hold the ranks of deputy commissioner assistant commissioner inspector etcPolice on Thursday arrested two civilians mdash Sanjay Punamia and his associate Sunil Jain who were sent to police custody for seven days Punamia was closely associated with Singh and had been handling all his financial deals since he was Thane police chief alleged complainant Shyamsundar AgarwalShyamsundar a real estate businessman has been involved in construction work in Mira Bhayandar since 1987Complainant arrested in rsquo16In his police statement Shyamsundar said he started a joint venture with Punamia in 2006 but left in 2009 owing to losses Thereafter Punamia using his police contacts particularly Singh started threatening to get cases registered against Shyamsundar including under the Maharashtra Crime Organised Control Act MCOCA In 2016 Thane police arrested Shyamsundar based on a complaint by Punamiarsquos close friend Mansukhlal Gandhi states Mumbai policersquos remand application While he was in judicial custody Jain sent one Manoj Ghatkar to meet his son Sharad Agarwal ldquoGhatkar allegedly told Sharad that Punamia was very close to Singh and took care of all his financial deals and if he wanted to avoid any further police cases against his father he would have to meet Singh and PunamiardquoldquoGhatkar arranged a meeting between Singh and Sharad and his brother Shubham at Singhrsquos Thane residence while he was the Thane police chief At the meeting Parag Maner the remand doesnrsquot mention who Maner is threatened both Sharad and Shubam with action against their father under MCOCA if they failed to pay up R20 crore They also beat up Sharad The scared complainant then paid Rs 9 crorerdquoExtortion resumed in 2020Based on Shyamsundarrsquos statement Mumbai police said that in 2018 when Singh got transferred from Thane Punamia again used his name to threaten the Agarwals to pay the remaining Rs 11 crore ldquoIn February 2020 when Singh became Mumbai police commissioner Punamia again started threatening merdquo the statement readldquoPunamia said he filed a false complaint against me with Juhu police on February 17 2021 claiming that underworld don Chhota Shakeel had threatened him in my name between 2016 and December 2020 He threatened a MCOCA case and the same was filed on March 1 and Unit 9 of Mumbai Crime Branch got the chargerdquoThe then senior police inspector PI of Unit 9 and other officers including the DCP of the area tried to extort money to safeguard Shyamsundar from MCOCA read the statement Shyamsundar said another PI of Unit 9 asked him to pay Rs 50 lakh ldquoA woman PI then called Sharad on WhatsApp and told him to meet the DCP at the Unit 9 office The DCP said he wanted us to clear all dues to Punamia and Singh pending since 2019 or he would arrest merdquoThreats of MCOCA caseEven after Singh was transferred various attempts were made by people close to him to extort money with threat of a MCOCA case the complaint read ldquoDuring his tenure as police chief Singh misused his position to register cases under MCOCA against the complainant and forged documents by taking forceful signatures from his son and taking their propertiesrdquo police saidldquoThe complainant has submitted audio recordings made by his sons of more than five hours in which Punamia and Jain took the name of Singh and other officers As discussed in the meeting the complainant was never arrested in the MCOCA case because he paid them in properties and cashrdquo a senior officer told middayAccording to the FIR two meetings took place at Punamiarsquos Fort office for settlement First on March 23 2021 where Punamia and complainantrsquos both sons Omkar builder Surendra Khurana and their lawyers were present ldquoIn the meeting Punamia asked me to give 50 per cent stake in my Gorai property and 20000 square feet Bhayandar property or else Rs 15 to Rs 20 crorerdquo the complaint read The second meeting was on March 30 for the deed of settlement and where forged documents were made ldquoAfter settling Singhrsquos demand Punamia asked me to settle the demands of DCP and ACP who wanted Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh respectivelyrdquoIn his statement Shyamsundar said Punamia ldquoreceived frequent calls from Singh and other officers in both the meetings and he discussed the Rs 100crore allegation letter written by Singh and the CBI investigation He also said the NIA is going to investigate 45 state ministers and the government is going to fall soon after which Singh will become police commissioner again or get a good post with the help of the central governmentrdquoSingh did not respond to middayrsquos calls and messagesComplaints against former police chiefgtgt Bookies Sonu Jalan and Ketan Tanna allege Singh got them arrested in a fake case of cricket betting and extorted R5 crore CID is probinggtgt Inspectors Anup Dange and Bhimrao Ghadge alleged corruption by Singh probe on by CID and ACBgtgt State home department launched a probe after city police chief said Sachin Wazersquos reinstatement was in violation of rulesgtgt A Thane police SIT probing a land scam linked to Singhgtgt In July ACP Shamkumar Nipunge wrote to the government and DGP of Maharashtra police that Singh had framed him in an abetment to suicide case during latterrsquos tenure as Thane police commissioner Nipunge was posted at the traffic division and he took action against heavy vehicles in the area for violating rules Singh didnrsquot like it as some officers were collecting money from the drivers and the same was allegedly going to Singh as well