The Mumbai Crime Branch, investigating one of the extortion cases against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, has recorded on-camera statements of at least 12 witnesses, who have said that they gave protection money to dismissed cop Sachin Waze. The money, they said, went to Singh, whom Waze called his No. 1.

Singh was summoned by the Crime Branch on October 12 but he did not turn up. In his statement to the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating a money laundering case against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, Waze had said that he used to refer to the minister as the No. 1. However, according to the Mumbai Crime Branch, the ‘No. 1’ was Singh.