New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the plea of former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh seeking CBI investigation in the alleged corrupt malpractices of Anil Deshmukh, Home Minister of Government of Maharashtra. The court asked Singh to approach High Court in the matter.
"Liberty to approach the High Court granted," Supreme Court said in its order.
Singh has withdrawn the plea from Supreme Court & said he will approach the Bombay High Court. The apex court said that the allegations levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner against Maharashtra home minister is very serious and asks senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Param Bir Singh why he is not approaching Bombay High Court for seeking CBI probe.
The bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Subhash Reddy told Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Singh, that they agree that the matter is quite serious and affects administration at large but power under Article 226 is wide and the High Court should be entertaining it.
Seeking to be heard under Article 32, Rohatgi contended that it is a rare situation wherein the police commissioner has been transferred on administrative grounds but the Home Minister denies it in an interview on Television.
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The entire country is rocked with the scandal, yesterday a senior police officer, Rashmi Shukla was also making allegations against the minister, said Rohatgi.
"The parties to the case were hunky-dory for a long time. Now they have fallen apart and this has come up. I agree it is serious but High Court can deal with it," said Justice Kaul.
Advocate Rohatgi asked the court to direct HC to hear the case tomorrow but the court asked him to make that prayer to HC itself. Advocate Rohatgi informed the court that he will be moving to the HC this afternoon only.
SC asked Param Bir Singh why he has not made Maharashtra Home Minister a party in his petition as the allegations are levelled against him.
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Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had been holding meetings in February 2021 at his residence with police officers including Sachin Vaze of Crime Intelligence Unit, Mumbai and Sanjay Patil, ACP Social Service Branch, Mumbai, bypassing their seniors and had instructed them that he had a target to accumulate Rs 100 crores every month and had directed to collect money from various establishments and other sources.
He sought directions from the court to safeguard him from any further coercive steps apprehended in retaliation for laying bare the corrupt malpractices of Deshmukh.
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