Ex Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh - his ‘tryst with controversies’
At times controversies come chasing you as a leopard whose stripes remain unchanged. Strangeness is an elementary feature.
CBI has now named him in the case related to the controversial death of Disha Salian.
Singh was in news in 2020 after the "relentless media investigations" and journalistic-trial with regard to the mysterious death of young Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
 |
| Mumbai's encounter specialist Daya Nayak - 2003 snap |
The city police commissioner had come at the receiving end of a political attack after the Supreme Court handed over the high profile probe into Sushant’s death – given out as suicide – to the CBI.
In the past too, Singh, 1988 batch IPS officer, had courted controversies.
Sadhvi Pragya, who was jailed for Malegaon blast, had named Param Bir Singh along with Hemant Karkare (who died in Pakistani terrorist siege on Nov 26/2008) and Suvarna Shinde for torturing and manhandling her to extract some ‘false confession’.
However, in a dramatic turn of events on March 17, 2015, when BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was the state Chief Minister -- the state Govt had promoted Singh as Thane police commissioner reportedly “ignoring” the seniority of three others.
When Uddhav Thackeray – heading Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance regime made Singh the police commissioner of Mumbai, the talk in the town was that the foundation for the same was laid by Fadnavis himself.
After all it is said that the police commissioner in the satellite city of Thane is only a stepping stone to head the cops in the country's commercial and entertainment capital – Mumbai Mayanagari.
Singh also had other controversies. As chief of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), he had given a clean chit to the incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the much talked about irrigation scam.
 |
| Param Bir Singh |
On to a different plane, but important facet of policing in India.
A few years back when history-sheeter Vikas Dubey of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, was finally held in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and killed near Kanpur in a police encounter; many things related to cop-criminal relationships surfaced.
But the neta-criminals' nexus is nothing new in Indian socio-political canvas.
More than a decade back in Mumbai, encounter specialist Daya Nayak case had thrown lights on the cops-don nexus. The episode put the Mumbai's elite crime branch in poor light.
In fact, Daya 'enjoyed celebrity status' and there have been many films including legendary Nana Patekar-starred ‘Ab Tak Chhappan’ based on life and police career of Daya Nayak.
Mumbai's encounter specialist (Daya) first made news in 2003 when a former journalist Ketan Tirodkar accused Daya of having links with the underworld and carrying out ‘killing spree’ at the directives of dons.
Daya was alleged of amassing wealth disproportionate to his income.
Nayak was investigated by the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). In 2006, Nayak was arrested during an investigation led by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) ACP Bhim Rao Ghadge.
However, it was alleged that Daya was framed and in 2010 a Court quashed all the MCOCA charges against him.
Together with the Telgi stam paper scam which also threw shady lights on police role in Maharashtra, there came a serious allegation that Daya Nayak was minting money for taking instructions from gangster Chhota Shakeel.
Yet again, the date December 1, 2003 had turned an important day for Mumbai police. The then city commissioner of police R S Sharma - a day after his retirement - otherwise would have been relaxing with family members and friends.
But that was not the fate stored for him. On the first day after he took out his police boots, he was taken into custody.
Sharma's arrest was in connection with the Telgi stamp paper scam and prior to him Joint Commissioner of Police Shridhar Wagal was also held under MCOCA for aiding and abetting Abdul Karim Telgi in the running of his infamous syndicate.
There were other instances in Mumbai. There was a fiasco with regard to the Mohd Afroz case when police applied POTA – apparently in haste and later withdrew the day the Vajpayee government debated the new anti-terrorism law in a joint sitting of Parliament.
Political influence had bothered professionals in the police force.
At one point, a former Mumbai police commissioner Rony Mendonca wrote a lengthy letter after his retirement to the Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
"...when you found I was not willing to comply with your (Bhujbal's) wishes you resorted to posting officers directly. I was left with no choice but to voluntarily seek a shift from the post of commissioner of police," Mendonca had written.
Of course there were scores of such cases in Gujarat specially during 2002 anti-Muslim mayhem when the cops in general sense were allegedly standing in solidarity with the 'majority community'.
In 1998-99, the National Commission for Minorities made news in embarrassing the BJP-led Vajpayee government, particularly in the context of attacks on Christians and the panel had said that in many cases in different states, the police seemed to look the other way.
In the Gujarat context, a serving senior police official in Uttar Pradesh in May 2002 (during the peak of mayhem) - Vibhuti Narayan Rai - had written a letter to several police officials lamenting point blank:
".... not only was the police unsuccessful in containing the violence ….. but it seemed that in many places policemen were actively encouraging the rioters".
Mumbai riots of 1992
In general sense, experts say Indian policing system needs reforms - something which has been pending for the last many decades.
In fact, it goes without saying that the police always appear to be in an adversarial relationship with the common citizens. This was a true pan-India scenario cutting across all regions and state boundaries.
The public perception of a policeman or even a policewoman is that of an intimidating, highhanded personality who puts people in illegal custody and resorts to third-degree methods.
Vibhuti Narayan Rai had written that the police failure and inaction (including in Gujarat) ought to be seen primarily "as a failure of the (police) leadership" itself.
"The failure of the police should not be attributed to lower ranks but must be seen as a failure of the leadership, that is the failure of the IPS (cadres)," Rai had said in his missive.
With regard to policing history in India, in most cases, it has been found that either the state DGP would be a dedicated 'Man Friday' to the state Chief Minister(s) or they would have had 'regular' running feuds.
In the words of Mumbai-based lawyer and NCP leader, Majeed Memon, constitutionally a state DGP is accountable to -- "law and law only" and not to any Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister.
But this fact of the law book has seldom made a difference in independent India and wherever and whenever a few individuals were at loggerheads with political bosses and civil bureaucracy, they have been unceremoniously replaced.
Several committees and experts have recommended a fixed tenure for state DGPs so that they need not fear 'transfer' at the whims and fancies of the political masters.
Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission on the Mumbai riots of 1992-1993 had spoken rather explicitly about strong communal feelings of the men in khaki.
"The working of the Special Investigation Squad is a study in communal discrimination. The officers of the squad systematically set about implicating as many Muslims and exculpating as many Hindus as possible irrespective of whether they were innocent or guilty.
Cases of many Hindus belonging to the Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Utsav Mandal (a local branch of Hindutva outfit) were wrongly classified as 'A' category and investigations closed," said the report.
No wonder, various police services in the country are generally viewed as far more amenable to political control and manipulation.
Justice B N Srikrishna
It is worth mentioning here that M.N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, had in one of his reports pointed out that nearly
-- 60 percent of all arrests in India made by police were unnecessary and unjustifiable.
However, it may not be fair to say that the police force or the entire system has failed.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Mendonca had summed it up well in an interview with this scribe way back in 2004 that :
".....the irony remains that police also do good work. But despite having done a good job and often bringing crime rate down like in Mumbai, fighting underworld dons and averting threat perceptions for film stars, the Mumbai cops have only earned flak".
This is precisely the story in most states if not all !
Policing is certainly one of well known thankless jobs!
Well, most of it is though not the making of cops in middle ranks.
It has been rather the complicity of cops' leadership - the elite IPS cadres - and political influences that has ultimately brought their image to such a receiving end.
Of course, Param Bir Singh was once hailed for taking on Don Arun Gawli.
But it was alleged in 2008-09 by the then Mumbai police commissioner, Hasan Gafoor, that during the November 26, 2008 (26/11) siege of Mumbai, that Param Bir Singh – as the IGP - was found guilty of dereliction of duties.
In fact, Singh’s father Hoshiyar Singh was furious about such a charge against his son and had moved court against Gafoor in Chandigarh.
Nevertheless, a probe panel constituted by the Congress-NCP regime had found fault with Gafoor and passed stricture against him for the 26/11 fiasco.
Perhaps the row against Param Bir Singh will take some more weeks and months to settle down.
Nana Patekar in film based on Daya Nayak's career and life
Ends
No comments:
Post a Comment