SC directs Maha govt to put 'hands on hold' in probe against Param Bir Singh

The Supreme Court Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to put ldquohands on holdrdquo in the investigation against former police commissioner Param Bir Singh over the allegations of misconduct and corruptionA bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said the messy state of affairs has the propensity of unnecessarily shaking confidence of people in police systemWhen the counsel for Maharashtra asked the apex court not to record its direction to put ldquohands on holdrdquo the in order the bench recorded his assurance in the matterldquoWe have now put down the matter for final hearing investigation being completed can pose problems Mr Darius Khambata senior advocate has assured to put their hands on hold We take the assurance on recordrdquo the bench saidThe apex court asked the parties to file written synopsis and posted the matter for hearing on March 9The court expressed concern over the ldquomessy state of affairsrdquo in the state and said this is an unfortunate scenarioldquoWe have had occasion to say earlier that it is messy state of affairs This is an unfortunate situationIt has the propensity of unnecessarily shaking confidence of people in police system Process of law must be carried in a mannerrdquo the bench observedSolicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the CBI submitted that it is in the interest of things that all cases herein be investigated by the central probe agencyldquoOnce you proceed with an investigation and record it then itrsquos not fair to stop midway State should not do anything that makes the process difficultrdquo Mehta saidThe apex court had earlier allowed Mumbai Police to carry on the investigation against Singh but restrained it from filing charge sheets on the FIRs against him over the allegations of misconduct and corruptionThe state police had earlier told the apex court that Singh cannot be considered a whistleblower under the law as he chose to speak out against alleged corruption involving former home minister Anil Deshmukh only after his transferThe top court had granted a major relief to Singh on November 22 by directing the Maharashtra Police not to arrest him in criminal cases lodged against him and had wondered if he was being hounded for filing cases against police officers and extortionists what could happen to a common manSeeking dismissal of Singhs plea for a CBI probe into the entire matter and against any coercive action by the state the Maharashtra government has filed an affidavit in the apex court and said that the ongoing probe in criminal cases against the former top cop should not be interfered withPrior to this the Bombay High Court had dismissed Singhs petition seeking to quash inquiries initiated against him by the Maharashtra government and said he can approach the Central Administrative TribunalThe high court had held that it was a service matter and rejected his claim that the governments action was a consequence of his allegations of corruption against DeshmukhAfter Singh was shunted out as Mumbai police commissioner in March 2021 in the aftermath of the Antilia bomb scare case in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray he levelled corruption allegations against DeshmukhIn his petition Singh had also alleged that DGP Pande told him that the inquiries were the fallout of his allegations against Deshmukh an NCP leaderSingh was transferred to the Home Guard after Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze was arrested in the case of an SUV with explosives found near industrialist Mukesh Ambanis house Antilia and the subsequent suspicious death of businessman Mansukh HiranThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever