One more extortion case filed against Param Bir Singh; 4th within a month

Mumbai police have registered one more case of extortion against former city police commissioner Param Bir Singh, an official said on Saturday.

This is the fourth such case against Singh and second in Mumbai. Two other cases were filed in Thane city. All these FIRs were registered within a span of one month.

The latest FIR was filed on Friday night at Goregaon police station on the basis of a complaint lodged by 48-year-old builder Bimal Agarwal, the official said.

In this case, dismissed police officer Sachin Waze and four others - Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Alpesh Patel, Vinay Singh alias Babloo and Riyaz Bhati - have also been named as accused, he said.

As per the complaint by Agarwal, the accused extorted Rs 9 lakh from him for not conducting a raid on two bars and restaurants, which he ran in partnership, and also forced him to buy two smartphones worth around Rs 2.92 lakh for them. The incident occurred between January 2020 and March 2021, it said.

Accordingly, the case was filed under IPC sections 384 and 385 (both pertaining to extortion) 34 (common intention) against the six accused and probe in the case is on, he said.

Singh is currently posted as DG Home Guards and he has not been attending office since May as he is on sick leave.

On July 22, Marine Drive police station in Mumbai had registered an FIR against Singh, five other police personnel, and two more persons for allegedly demanding Rs 15 crore from a builder.

The next day, one more case of extortion was registered against him, some other police officers at Kopri police station in Thane.

On July 30, another extortion case was filed against the senior IPS officer at Thane Nagar police station on the basis of a complaint lodged by businessman Ketan Tanna.

The case registered at Marine Drive police station was recently handed over to state CID for investigation, while Thane police have issued lookout notices against Param Bir Singh and other accused persons in connection with the FIRs registered in Thane city.

Singh was shunted out as Mumbai police commissioner in March this year after the arrest of dismissed police officer Sachin Waze in the case of an explosives-laden vehicle found near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai. Singh later accused the then state home minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption, following which the latter resigned in April.