Thane Court Issues Warrant Against Mumbai Ex-Top Cop Param Bir Singh

A court in Maharashtra's Thane city has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in connection with an alleged extortion case registered against him with a local police station.

The order was issued by Chief Judicial Magistrate RJ Tamble two days ago to Thane Nagar police station, where the case is registered. The order became available on Thursday.

As "Accused Param Bir Singh, R/at: House No: 133, Sector-27 Chandigarh" is charged with offenses including extortion under IPC section 384, "you are hereby directed (to) arrest the said accused and produce him before me," it said.

The case was registered in July against Param Bir Singh and 28 others including six police officers for allegedly extorting money from a builder.

Other accused include retired "encounter specialist'' police officer Pradeep Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Devraj, Assistant Commissioner of Police NT Kadam and inspector Rajkumar Kothmire.

Complainant Ketan Tanna had alleged that when Singh was Thane police commissioner between January 2018 to February 2019, the accused extorted Rs 1.25 crore from him by summoning him to the office of the Anti-Extortion Cell and threatening to frame him up in serious criminal cases.

Singh was shunted out from the post of Mumbai police commissioner in March 2021 in the aftermath of the discovery of an SUV with explosives near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in south Mumbai and arrest of police officer Sachin Waze in the case.

Singh later accused then state home minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption.

Two other extortion cases have been registered against the IPS officer, based on a complaint filed by another builder. Singh is also facing inquiry by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau and a case filed by a police officer from Akola against him under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act).

Recently the Maharashtra government had told the Bombay High Court that it did not know his whereabouts.