Attempts to thwart CBI probe against Anil Deshmukh: Param Bir Singh moves Bombay High Court challenging inquiry against him

Former Commissioner of Mumbai Police Param Bir Singh has approached the Bombay High Court assailing preliminary inquiries initiated against him by the Maharashtra government, claiming the orders were issued to protect the reputation of the government.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Singh, mentioned the matter before Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale seeking an urgent order of stay on the inquires initiated against Singh.

The preliminary inquiries were initiated against Singh on April 1 and April 20 by the State through the present Director General of Maharashtra Police Sanjay Pandey, allegedly to thwart the then likely inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Rohatgi submitted.

Rohatgi thus argued that the preliminary inquiry orders were manifestly arbitrary and illegal.

When the State sought for time to seek instructions, Rohatgi agreed but claimed that some sort of interim stay on the enquiries may be granted.

The Bench stated that since no show cause notice had been issued to Singh so far, there seemed to be no reason to pass any interim orders.

"It is an enquiry for violation of some service rules. At the most, it is a service matter. Let the government respond," the Court said.

The matter will be heard on May 4.

Singh claimed in the plea that the April 1 order was purportedly initiated for violation of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968. The order of April 20 was passed by Deshmukh himself over allegations of corruption charges levelled against Singh.

Singh, who had been removed from his post of Commissioner of Mumbai Police, had levelled corruption charges against Deshmukh and had sought for a CBI inquiry through a plea before the High Court.

The High Court had allowed the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the allegations of malpractices by Deshmukh. CBI subsequently registered an FIR against the former Home Minister and unknown persons.

In his latest plea before the High Court, Singh claimed that inquiry initiated against him was an attempt to thwart the CBI preliminary inquiry and the subsequent FIR.

Singh prayed for a CBI probe into the "criminal conspiracy and malicious attempts" to supposedly hoodwink the witnesses, to screen evidence, and harass Singh for having approached the constitutional courts.

He has also sought for a recall of the order initiating the preliminary inquiries against him for being mala fide.

"The orders direct such inquiries to protect the reputation of the government which has been torn to tatter not because of the petitioner, but because of the wholly illegal and corrupt practices of the then Home Minister and others," the plea states.