Anil Deshmukh case: Param Bir Singh has 'no more evidence'

Mumbai, Nov 3 (IANS) In a fresh twist, Mumbai's former Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh has informed a government-appointed probe panel that he has no further evidence to share in the corruption allegations he had levelled against former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

He had made this submission, in an affidavit, to Justice K.U. Chandiwal Commission at its previous hearing on October 13, official sources said here.

The revelations came two days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) - based on a CBI FIR arising out of Singh's allegations - questioned and later arrested Deshmukh, who is now in the agency's custody till November 6.

The commission sources reveal that, barring his original March letter to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh has apparently declined to share any more evidence pertaining to the allegations he had levelled against the then Home Minister Deshmukh, who quit in April.

Deshmukh's lawyer Aniket Nikam said that "its now clear that Singh had no proof against the ex-minister and simply hurled the allegations for the sake of it".

The Nationalist Congress Party's senior leader Deshmukh, 72, has consistently rubbished all allegations and questioned "where is the complainant Singh who hurled the false charges against him and then disappeared, and may have sneaked out of India as per some media reports".

NCP leader and MLA Shashikant Shinde said that this is an indirect admission by Singh that Deshmukh was a victim of the IPS officer's false charges after which the accuser (Singh) has gone missing.

"Moreover, Singh had merely written a lettera he had not given any proof/evidence. It's an indirect admission that Deshmukh is innocent," Shinde told media persons.

On his part, Singh has ignored several summons by the probe Commission, coughed out fines three times and skipped a bailable warrant.

Besides, Singh faces two non-bailable arrest warrants issued by a Mumbai and Pune court as he is named in some extortion cases lodged against him by the police.

After Singh's letter to the CM, the CBI and ED raided Deshmukh's Mumbai and Nagpur homes several times in the past few months, and after he appeared before the ED, he was arrested on November 1 and is presently in its custody till Saturday.

The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi has slammed Deshmukh's arrest and termed it as the Bharatiya Janata Party's strategy to misuse the central agencies against opposition-ruled governments and destabilise them.