Games politicians play

Giving its judgment in a clutch of PILs filed before it, the Bombay High Court has very correctly directed the CBI to inquire into the accusation by ousted Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh against the state Home Minister that the latter had summoned two junior officials of the Crime Branch and demanded that they collect Rs 10 crore per month from liquor bars and other such operators and deposit the money with him.

The accusation may be true, though figures could be exaggerated. It is not uncommon for Home Ministers in Maharashtra to summon Inspectors and instruct them on ‘official’ matters. All instructions should be channelised through the CP, but no CP has the gall to tell the minister that he should not break the chain of command. Param Bir himself, when he was a middle-ranking officer, used to visit the office of the ACS (Home) and remain closeted there for lengths of time.

The court felt that the CBI was an ‘independent’ body. That is in stark contrast to the opinion of the SC which had famously dubbed the agency a ‘caged parrot’. The agency will surely book Anil Deshmukh because the BJP is hell-bent on toppling the coalition government in Maharashtra. But will it also expose Param Bir if he, too, had been a collaborator before he was fired? Will it also expose the sins of the City Police’s Crime Branch after its Commissioner brought in Sachin Waze to be his hatchet man? Param Bir is back in the BJP camp now, after his diatribe against Deshmukh. That would provide the protection he needs.

Param Bir has some difficult questions to answer. How did Waze get reinstated after 13 years under suspension? Why was he posted in the Crime Branch instead of being put on Covid-related duties, on which excuse he was sought to be reinstated? Why was he given independent charge of the crime intelligence unit, a position normally held by a senior Inspector? Why was he allowed to report to the Commissioner instead of his hierarchical superiors?

There are some more tricky questions! Did Param Bir know of Waze’s plan to plant a car with gelatin sticks and a threat letter near Ambani’s house? Waze, an Assistant Inspector, could not have conceived of this plan. Did Param Bir know that Waze arrived and left his office in the Commissioner’s compound in a Mercedes car? If he knew this, what was his advice to Waze? Did he know that Waze operated from a room in a five-star hotel? If he did not know these facts, now established in the NIA’s investigations, was he truly in charge of matters? His control over a former ‘encounter specialist’ reporting to him alone was lax!

Sanjay Pande, the senior-most IPS officer in the state, known for his scrupulous honesty, was entrusted by the Home Minister with some delicate inquiries concerning his IPS colleagues. He now alleges that Param Bir had requested him to close one such inquiry, and Pande says that he has recorded this conversation. This revelation has added fresh grist to a drama which shows no sign of subsiding. What can the public make of this sordid affair involving crucial players in the security management system of this metropolis? Should the politicians and the police leaders be allowed to play around with people’s lives?

Rashmi Shukla, another senior IPS officer in her capacity of Commissioner (Intelligence), had intercepted conversations between IPS and state service officers with the Home Minister where postings and cash for transfers had been discussed. Rumours about this were floating around police circles. Now, it is in the public domain.

If it is true that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had met Amit Shah in Ahmedabad, prior to checking into hospital for gallbladder surgery, the Waze saga could take a more dramatic turn. Waze’s benefactor Param Bir had taken back into service another dismissed ‘encounter specialist’, Pradip Sharma, in 2017, when Param Bir was CP, Thane. Param Bir’s penchant for gun-toting police officers was known to his colleagues and even to the public.

The first joust between Pawar and Shah was won by Sharad Pawar. After getting his nephew Ajit off the hook in the multi-crore irrigation scam, a farce was enacted in Raj Bhavan by waking the state’s Governor at the crack of dawn to swear in a BJP-NCP government, with Ajit as Deputy CM in the Devendra Fadnavis-led coalition government. It lasted till lunch was served that same afternoon.

The Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau who had obliged both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar was Param Bir, the very same who was later elevated to the prized post of Police Commissioner of Mumbai. He was removed a year later because of Waze’s gaffe in mishandling an insane plot to part Ambani from his money! Param Bir had helped Fadnavis in the past by addressing a press conference in his capacity as ADGP (Law and Order) to justify the arrests of the left-wing intellectuals in the Bhima-Koregaon case. In the normal course, this press meet should have been called at Pune and addressed by that city’s then Police Commissioner, Dr KK Venkateshan. Obviously, Fadnavis reposed more trust in Param Bir, who was not directly involved in the investigations.

Sharad Pawar’s meeting with Shah, if it did happen, would necessarily touch on the allegations of the demand for a monthly pay-off made by Param Bir against Deshmukh. The NIA had got involved in the investigation of the car with the gelatin sticks by floating a tale of an Islamic terror cell set up in Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail. The CBI, controlled by the Centre, has been asked by the Bombay High Court to inquire into the demand of the pay-off. All cards fall neatly into Shah’s hands! And Sharad Pawar knows his task is cut out for him. If he is about to strike a bargain with the BJP to topple the Shiv Sena-led government, the fate of Param Bir will again hang by a thread. He is a clever operator, but politicians thirsting for power and revenge are a dangerous lot. If Param Bir has to face the combined might of a Sharad Pawar and an Amit Shah, the battle will take a one-way trajectory. The public and the police of this city are waiting with bated breath. The politician-police-criminal nexus needs to be broken.