Sharad Pawar also questioned the timing of Param Bir Singh’s allegations.
New Delhi:
The head of the Nationalist Congress, Sharad Pawar, has recommended a special investigation into the allegations by former Mumbai Police Chief Param Bir Singh against Maharashtra’s Interior Minister Anil Deshmukh. The investigator he suggested was Julio Ribeiro, the former high-ranking Mumbai policeman, who eventually became the chief of the Gujarat and Punjab police and eventually appointed India’s ambassador to Romania.
“The credibility of Julio Riberio is such that no one can interfere or influence his investigation,” Pawar said amid a huge political storm unleashed by a letter from Singh, sent immediately after he was transferred to the Interior Guards.
Pawar, a key ally of the ruler Maharahtra Vikas Aghadi, questioned the timing of Singh’s allegations. Noting that the officer spoke only after he was taken out, Pawar said the allegations lack substance.
“We must analyze the timing of these accusations against Anil Deshmukh. Why now? Param Bir Singh has made all these accusations after his transfer,” Sharad Pawar told reporters in Delhi.
“There were allegations that HM had ordered the police to collect 100 million rupees. There is no information about the actual transaction of money. There is no information about the transfer of money to the interior minister or his staff,” Pawar told reporters in Delhi, where he arrived this morning with his daughter Supriya Sule.
“The decision to reinstate Mr. Vaze into service was not made by the Honorable Chief Minister or the Minister of the Interior. It was made by the former PC himself and the PC himself gave Vaze important sensitive assignments,” Pawar tweeted.
At my press conference in New Delhi I expressed my views regarding the letter that was sent by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh to the Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Uddhav Thackeray. pic.twitter.com/j7AkOZ3EAZ
– Sharad Pawar (@PawarSpeaks) March 21, 2021
Singh, who moved from the top post of the Mumbai police after failures in the investigation for fear of Mukesh Ambani’s safety, accused Deshmukh of corruption and interference in police work.
The Interior Minister, Singh wrote in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had started an extortion scam with several officers, including Sachin Waze, who has been arrested in the explosives case. They were set a target of 100 million rupees a month and told to collect in pubs and restaurants.
He also gave orders, aimed at political gain, to police officers and encouraged them to bypass their commanders.
In the letter, Singh said that he had discussed the Interior Minister’s “misdeeds” with Sharad Pawar, his nephew and senior deputy minister Ajit Pawar and some other leaders.
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