Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, declared an absconder by a court, arrived in the city on Thursday and was questioned by Crime Branch officials in an extortion case registered against him.
Mr. Singh, who flew in here from Chandigarh, arrived at the office of the unit 11 of the Mumbai police’s Crime Branch in Kandivali after 11 am. He left seven hours later, around 6.15 in the evening. The IPS officer, who is still Director General of Home Guard in Maharashtra, arrived and left in an official car.
“He cooperated with the probe and replied to all our questions. We have issued him a notice, stating that he should appear again whenever required,” a senior official said.
Builder-hotelier Bimal Agrawal had registered a case at suburban Goregaon police station, accusing Mr. Singh and some other police officials of extorting money from him after threatening to frame him in a false case.
Mr. Singh is facing a total of five extortion cases in Maharashtra. As summons issued to him went unanswered, a court here had earlier this month declared the IPS officer a “proclaimed offender”.
Mr. Singh had told news channels on Wednesday that he was in Chandigarh, after disappearing from public view in May this year. He has not reported to work since May following his transfer from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner and his subsequent allegations of corruption against the then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Mr. Singh had been shunted out after police officer Sachin Waze was arrested in the case of an SUV with explosives that was found parked near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house, and the subsequent suspicious death of businessman Mansukh Hiran. The Supreme Court granted him protection from arrest a few days ago.
