Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh on Thursday filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who he claimed asked police officer Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants.
The PIL also raised the issue of alleged corruption in police transfers and postings in the state.
The IPS officer had earlier this week approached the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday termed the matter as quite serious but asked him to approach the High Court.
The criminal Public Interest Litigation reiterated the allegations Singh had made earlier and sought an “immediate, unbiased, impartial” probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Deshmukh, an NCP leader.
Singh sought an HC direction to the CBI to secure CCTV footage from Deshmukh’s residence from earlier this year before it was “destroyed,” and to the state government to produce all records of communication received from IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in March 2020.
In February last year, Shukla had levelled allegations of malpractises in police postings and transfers against Deshmukh and also informed her superiors about it, but soon afterwards she was transferred, alleged the PIL.
The court should pass directions to ensure that in future police officials are not transferred on account of “pecuniary benefits to any politician”, it said.
~With inputs from PTI~