MUMBAI: Former home minister Anil Deshmukh’s counsel Anita Castellino on Wednesday urged Justice K U Chandiwal to invoke powers of arrest or attach properties of former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh as he was avoiding service and not responding to notices.
The state government had on March 31 appointed Justice Chandiwal under the Commission of Inquiry Act to probe Singh’s letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray against Deshmukh. The term of the commission ends on September 30, but it was extended by three months till December 31.
The commission had on September 7 issued a bailable warrant against Singh, but as the police failed to serve the warrant as he was not at his known addresses, the commission decided to give him another chance to appear before it. The warrant issued on September 7 was extended/reissued, to be executed on or before October 6, 2021.
When the commission asked Singh’s lawyer Anukul Seth as to how he would deal with the report of non-execution of warrant, he submitted that it is for the commission to decide due course and he had no instructions directly from his client, following which Castellino criticized the conduct of Singh, saying the commission should invoke powers under the civil procedure code and issue an arrest warrant against the former police chief.
