In a major development, Mumbai Police's ex-Commissioner Param Bir Singh was granted interim protection from arrest in 6 cases lodged against him by the state government. The top court issued notices to the CBI and the Maharashtra government, while it agreed to hear the IPS officer's plea on 6th December.The 2-judge bench of Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh has asked Mumbai's former police chief to join the probe while expressing concern over his tussle with Maharashtra's former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. While the apex court questioned what signal does it send if the former police chief claims threat from the very department he headed, Singh's lawyers assured the court that he wasn't going to abscond.
The top court observed that it finds the picture "very disturbing" and the matter is getting more and more curious as Param Bir Singh's lawyers submitted that he was very much in India and had no intention to flee the country. Singh's lawyers submitted that the Mumbai Police's ex-chief feared for his safety from the state police and claimed that he had been implicated in various false cases after he accused then-state home minister of extortion. Contending that he has full faith in Indian judiciary, Singh has submitted that he is ready for a CBI probe into the case and can appear within 48 hours of being summoned by the agency. Singh had last attended his office in May this year after which he went on leave. The state police had told the Bombay High Court last month that his whereabouts were not known.