Supreme Court grants Mumbai ex-cop Param Bir Singh arrest protection

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 22

The Supreme Court on Monday granted protection from arrest to former Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh, who has been declared a proclaimed offender in an extortion case, after his counsel said he was in India.

“The accused shall join the investigation. Meanwhile he shall not be arrested,” said a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.

The Bench also issued notices to the Maharashtra Government, state DGP and CBI on his petition and listed the matter for further hearing on December 6 after senior counsel Puneet Bali, representing Singh, said the former Mumbai Commissioner of Police (CP) apprehended threat to his life if he entered Maharashtra.

Terming the facts of the case as very disturbing, the Bench said the battle between the former Home Minister and the former Mumbai CP had become “curiouser and curiouser”.

Singh, who created a political storm by accusing then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption, had sought a CBI probe into the entire issue involving him. He has moved the top court challenging the September 16 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing his petition against two preliminary inquiries initiated against him by the Maharashtra Government. The SC on November 18 asked him to disclose his whereabouts, saying there would be “no protection, no hearing until we know where you are”. It had taken strong exception to his plea filed through power of attorney.