Mumbai:Ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who was probed for alleged extortion charges, faced fresh trouble as a Dubai-based businessman accused him of blackmailing him and demanding a Rs 15 crore bribe to withdraw the false charges.
The businessman Rupin Hemant Banker said Mumbai police filed a “false case” against him after he fled Dubai following a dispute with businessman Kailash Agarwal. He alleged that he had to flee to Dubai after Agarwal demanded Rs 35 crore from him as settlement even as he and his family received death threats. In Mumbai, “under the leadership of Parambir Singh, the police started demanding Rs 15 crore,” Banker said.
He said that the police also threatened to invoke a false case against him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) if he fails to pay the bribe money. Rupin also handed over the call recording of the conversation with businessman Kailas Agarwal to the Commissioner of Police. The CBI last week registered five separate FIRs against Singh and others following Supreme Court directions to the agency to probe the charges against Singh.
The SC directions came after Singh himself requested the apex court to transfer the probe to CBI saying he was “targeted” for complaining against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh who is being probed for charges of money laundering.