If you knew of corruption, why no FIR?: Bombay HC to Param Bir Singh

The division bench of the Bombay High Court hearing the criminal PIL filed by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking CBI enquiry into the alleged corrupt wrongdoings by state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh pulled up the former on Wednesday asking lsquowhy no FIR was registeredrsquo if he was aware of the lsquocorrupt malpracticesrsquoHome Minister Anil Deshmukh with former top cop Param Bir Singh File picAshish RajeWhen the senior advocate appearing for Singh told the HC that his client wanted to avoid the labyrinth of law as the complaint is against the state home minister the latter was rapped by the court saying ldquoYou are not above lawThe bench reserved the order over the petition Singh in his letter to the chief minister had alleged that Deshmukh had demanded R100 crore from the 1750 establishments in Mumbai The development took place after Singh was removed from the top post of Mumbai police over the Antilia bomb scare fiasco in which API Sachin Waze is the prime suspectHearing the criminal PIL on Wednesday the division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni said that ldquoan independent enquiry cannot be initiated in the absence of an FIRrdquoldquoYou are a police officer When you were aware that an offence was committed you were dutybound to register an FIR Why did you fail to do so Writing a letter to the chief minister will not serve the purposerdquo observed the benchldquoThe High Court in a very rare instance can order to register an FIR Please donrsquot turn the High Court into a magistrate court to order an FIR under section 156 3 of CrPC The petitioner is a senior police officer not a laymanrdquo the bench said ldquoIf the police fail to file an FIR against Deshmukh then you Singh have the option to file an application before magistraterdquo Chief Justice Datta saidSenior advocate Vikram Nankani appeared for Singh and told the bench that his client wanted to avoid the labyrinth of law as the complaint is against the state home minister Hearing this Chief Justice Datta said ldquoYou are not above the lawrdquoCJ Datta further asked Nankani ldquoHas Deshmukh made any statement regarding the extortion of money to collect R100 crore funds from the establishments in the presence of Singhrdquo The bench added that no affidavit has been filed or submitted by a police officer who was allegedly called by Deshmukh to his official residence to lsquosupport the allegation levelled by Singh in his petitionrsquoAdvocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni questioned the maintainability of the petition ldquoHe Singh has personal interest in the matter and is playing the victim cardrdquo Kumbhakoni said However Nankani replied ldquoHe is not challenging his transfer order He is talking about political intervention in the police by bypassing himrdquoNankani added ldquoThe allegation is coming from a senior police officer and hence an investigation into it must be conducted by an independent agencyrdquo The CJ asked ldquoInvestigation into what Where is the FIR What stopped you from filing the FIRrdquo AG Kumbhakoni cited several judgments to dissuade the bench from passing a judgment to initiate investigation by an independent agency