SC asks Param Bir Singh to move Bombay HC on CBI probe in corruption allegations against Deshmukh
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the plea of former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking CBI investigation in the alleged corrupt malpractices of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and asked him to approach the Bombay High Court.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul allowed Singh to withdraw the plea and approach the High Court.
The Bench said that the allegations and counter-allegations between Singh and Deshmukh are "serious" but the case should be heard by the High Court first.
"No doubt the matter is quite serious, it also appears a lot of material in the public domain due to personas falling apart," the Bench observed while asking senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Singh to approach the Bombay High Court.
"There is now another angle to it. The concerned parties were quite hunky-dory for very long. Now having fallen apart, one is making the allegation against the other. It is a serious matter no doubt. The High Court is competent to deal with this issue," the apex court said.
Thereafter, Rohatgi withdrew the plea from the top court and said he will move to Bombay High Court today itself.
Rohatgi requested the top court to issue direction the High Court to hear the matter tomorrow in view of the fact that the case involves certain CCTV footage etc., however, the Bench asked him to raise this request before the High Court.
The Bench in its order stated, "The petitioner withdraw the petition with liberty to approve the High Court. They will file a plea today and would like the matter to be taken tomorrow. Liberty to approach the High Court granted."
During the hearing, the Bench also said that it's "unfortunate" that the Supreme Court's judgement on police reform has not been implemented. The issue of police reforms props up only when some political situation explodes, Justice Kaul added.
Rohatgi while advancing arguments Singh said that its rare that a Police Commissioner is transferred under this law that talks of administrative reasons and the minister himself said on TV that it was not done for administrative reasons.
Singh on Monday filed a petition before the apex court claiming that Deshmukh "pressurised" him to probe the role of certain BJP leaders and to "somehow implicate" them in the case of the death of MP Mohan Delkar and he "did not succumb" to the pressure.
Singh, who was shunted out as Mumbai Police Commissioner in the wake of the Antilia bomb scare case, has also challenged the government's order transferring him from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner.
In his plea, he also repeated the graft allegations he had made against Deshmukh in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and also accused the Maharashtra Home Minister of interfering in police investigations.
Singh, who was recently transferred, has alleged wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray claiming Deshmukh's involvement in severe "malpractices".
However, Anil Deshmukh on Saturday refuted all the allegations made by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh against him. Deshmukh said the police officer made these false allegations to save himself from legal action.
