Mumbai: Param Bir Singh, other top cops booked for extortion, cheating

Param Bir Singh. File pic/Ashish Raje

The Marine Drive police on Thursday booked former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh and other serving officers on charges of extortion, cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and disobeying the law along with other stringent Sections of the Indian Penal Code. The other officers hold the ranks of deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, inspector, etc.

Police on Thursday arrested two civilians - Sanjay Punamia and his associate Sunil Jain, who were sent to police custody for seven days. Punamia was closely associated with Singh and had been handling all his financial deals since he was Thane police chief, alleged complainant Shyamsundar Agarwal.

Shyamsundar, a real estate businessman, has been involved in construction work in Mira Bhayandar since 1987.

Complainant arrested in '16

In his police statement, Shyamsundar said he started a joint venture with Punamia in 2006, but left in 2009 owing to losses. Thereafter, Punamia, using his police contacts, particularly Singh, started threatening to get cases registered against Shyamsundar, including under the Maharashtra Crime Organised Control Act (MCOCA). In 2016, Thane police arrested Shyamsundar based on a complaint by Punamia's close friend Mansukhlal Gandhi, states Mumbai police's remand application. While he was in judicial custody, Jain sent one Manoj Ghatkar to meet his son Sharad Agarwal. "Ghatkar allegedly told Sharad that Punamia was very close to Singh and took care of all his financial deals, and if he wanted to avoid any further police cases against his father he would have to meet Singh and Punamia."

"Ghatkar arranged a meeting between Singh and Sharad and his brother Shubham at Singh's Thane residence while he was the Thane police chief. At the meeting, Parag Maner [the remand doesn't mention who Maner is] threatened both Sharad and Shubam with action against their father under MCOCA if they failed to pay up R20 crore. They also beat up Sharad. The scared complainant then paid Rs 9 crore."

Extortion resumed in 2020

Based on Shyamsundar's statement, Mumbai police said that in 2018, when Singh got transferred from Thane, Punamia again used his name to threaten the Agarwals to pay the remaining Rs 11 crore. "In February 2020, when Singh became Mumbai police commissioner, Punamia again started threatening me," the statement read.

"Punamia said he filed a false complaint against me with Juhu police on February 17, 2021, claiming that underworld don Chhota Shakeel had threatened him in my name between 2016 and December 2020. He threatened a MCOCA case and the same was filed on March 1 and Unit 9 of Mumbai Crime Branch got the charge."

The then senior police inspector (PI) of Unit 9 and other officers, including the DCP of the area, tried to extort money to safeguard Shyamsundar from MCOCA, read the statement. Shyamsundar said another PI of Unit 9 asked him to pay Rs 50 lakh. "A woman PI then called Sharad on WhatsApp and told him to meet the DCP at the Unit 9 office. The DCP said he wanted [us to] clear all dues to Punamia and Singh pending since 2019 or he would arrest me."

Threats of MCOCA case

Even after Singh was transferred, various attempts were made by people close to him to extort money with threat of a MCOCA case, the complaint read. "During his tenure as police chief, Singh misused his position to register cases under MCOCA against the complainant and forged documents by taking forceful signatures from his son and taking their properties," police said.

"The complainant has submitted audio recordings [made by his sons] of more than five hours in which Punamia and Jain took the name of Singh and other officers. As discussed in the meeting, the complainant was never arrested in the MCOCA case, because he paid them in properties and cash," a senior officer told mid-day.

According to the FIR, two meetings took place at Punamia's Fort office for settlement. First on March 23, 2021, where Punamia and complainant's both sons, Omkar builder Surendra Khurana and their lawyers were present. "In the meeting, Punamia asked me to give 50 per cent stake in my Gorai property and 20,000 square feet Bhayandar property or else Rs 15 to Rs 20 crore," the complaint read. The second meeting was on March 30 for the deed of settlement and where forged documents were made. "After settling Singh's demand, Punamia asked me to settle the demands of DCP and ACP who wanted Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, respectively."

In his statement, Shyamsundar said Punamia "received frequent calls from Singh and other officers in both the meetings and he discussed the Rs 100-crore allegation letter written by Singh and the CBI investigation... He also said the NIA is going to investigate 4-5 state ministers and the government is going to fall soon, after which Singh will become police commissioner again or get a good post with the help of the central government."

Singh did not respond to mid-day's calls and messages.

Complaints against former police chief

>> Bookies Sonu Jalan and Ketan Tanna allege Singh got them arrested in a fake case of cricket betting and extorted R5 crore; CID is probing
>> Inspectors Anup Dange and Bhimrao Ghadge alleged corruption by Singh; probe on by CID and ACB
>> State home department launched a probe after city police chief said Sachin Waze's reinstatement was in violation of rules
>> A Thane police SIT probing a land scam linked to Singh
>> In July, ACP Shamkumar Nipunge wrote to the government and DGP of Maharashtra police that Singh had framed him in an abetment to suicide case during latter's tenure as Thane police commissioner. Nipunge was posted at the traffic division and he took action against heavy vehicles in the area for violating rules. Singh didn't like it, as some officers were collecting money from the drivers and the same was allegedly going to Singh as well.