Mumbai: Justice Gavai of SC recuses from hearing Param Bir plea

Supreme Court judge Justice B R Gavai on Tuesday recused himself from hearing a plea filed by former

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh

seeking transfer of all inquiries against him to an independent agency like CBI.

At the outset, when Singh’s petition came up before a bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B R Gavai, the court said it cannot hear the case and it has be posted before another bench. “List the matter before a bench of which one of us (B.R. Gavai, J.) is not a member,” the bench said.

Singh, in his fresh plea before the top court, alleged he was being targeted by the state government after he levelled allegations of corruption against then

home minister Anil Deshmukh

. Expressing fear that an impartial probe was not possible by the state authorities, he pleaded for the probes against to him be shifted outside Maharashtra. tnn