Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh on Monday claimed that former Maharashtra home minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh had told him that extortion and illegal extortion money went to NCP leader Jayant Patil, who managed the funds of the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Speaking to news agency PTI, Singh alleged that the then state home minister Anil Deshmukh had given his officers a target of recovering Rs 100 crore from Mumbai.
The 1988 batch IPS officer alleged that Deshmukh had also informed them about his plans to target several prominent opposition leaders, including then Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis. Singh further clarified that the target was to collect Rs 100 crore for Mumbai city alone and for this, pressure was put on police officers under him.
He said that the recovery target was different for the rest of the state. The former police commissioner said that people involved in illegal activities, including the banned gutkha business, were also called to discuss the issue of extortion and collection.
Earlier, former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s son and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Salil Deshmukh on Saturday claimed that the BJP saved former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh from arrest by the NIA in the ‘Antilia’ terror case and used him to level allegations against his father. Salil Deshmukh claimed in a social media post that Parambir Singh was the mastermind behind placing a vehicle filled with explosives near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai residence and the death of the driver.
He claimed that when the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to know about Singh’s role, it suspended him. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was to arrest Param Bir Singh in both these cases, who had taken refuge under the protection of the BJP. Salil alleged that he started making allegations against Anil Deshmukh on the instructions of BJP leaders. He was responding to the latest allegations by Singh who claimed that Anil Deshmukh, as Home Minister, had pressured him to register false cases against some BJP leaders.
