Mumbai: CID takes over another probe against Param Bir Singh

MUMBAI: The home department on Friday transferred an extortion case registered by Thane police against former

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh

, serving DCP Parag Manere, builder Sanjay Punamia, businessman Sunil Jain and one Manoj Ghatkar and three officers from Kopri police station to the state Crime Investigation Department (CID).

This will be the third case against Singh and his accomplices to be probed by the state CID. Earlier, inspector Bhimrao Ghadge’s FIR and builder Shyam Sunder Agarwal’s case registered at Thane and Marine Drive police stations, respectively, were transferred to the probe agency.

In the FIR registered in July, Sharad Agarwal, the nephew of Shyam Sunder Agrawal, had claimed that between November 2016 and May 2018, Singh, who was then

Thane DCP

, and others, in connivance with each other, had initially ‘extorted’ Rs 2 crore from him. He also said that they forcibly made him sign documents to grab his land in Bhayander, which was in the name of his mother, and threatened to book his uncle Shyam Sunder under MCOCA and grabbed his land in Nashik and Sinnar.

A police officer said that the demands were made at Singh’s official residence in Kopri’s Bara Bangla area and Punamiya’s Marine Dr-ive flat. Punmiya and Agrawal were business partners and after the latter’s arrest in the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act scam, the police demanded money for his release, it is alleged.

Sources said that these cases have been transferred to CID as they are complex and most of the accused are “influential” senior police officers.

A total of five FIRs have been registered against Singh and his accomplices so far. Sources said that bookie Ketan Tanna’s FIR and businessman Bimal Agarwal’s FIR too are likely to be transferred to the state CID so that one agency will be able to present all the cases.

The government has already appointed special public prosecutor Shekar Jagtap for the state CID.

Meanwhile, Punamia has been admitted to a private hospital in Thane after he tested positive for Covid-19. The public prosecutor has filed an appeal against a Thane court’s order for his admission at Jupiter Hospital. “We have challenged his admission to a private hospital as he does not have any other ailment. State-run hospitals, like JJ and St George, are equipped to treat Covid-19, so why should he be treated at a private hospital,” said Jagtap.


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