Mumbai police file charge sheet against Param Bir Singh, three others in extortion case

Former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh and three others - including dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze - have been charged by the city police.

The over 1,800-page chargesheet was filed before a suburban magistrate court on Saturday. Singh was suspended by the Maharashtra government on Thursday on disciplinary grounds.

"The (Mumbai Police) chargesheet details the extortion racket run by Singh and Waze. Statements of witnesses have been affixed elaborating the same," said public prosecutor Shekar Jagtap.


The Mumbai Police, in the chargesheet, has recorded the statement of witnesses, who have alleged that Vaze was extorting money from bars and restaurants at the behest of 'No. 1' - identified as Singh.

In his statement, ACP Sanjay Patil told the police that Vaze - during a meeting with hotel and bar owners - had told them that he was given a target of collecting '2 crore daily from them by No. 1 (Commissioner of Police Singh). Hotelier Mahesh Shetty, a witness, said in his statement that in one of the meetings called by Vaze, the Mumbai police officer told him that, "he was collecting the money at the behest of No.1."

"When probed further who he was referring to as No.1, Waze told him that it was the CP," according to his statement, the police said.

Vaze is also being probed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in a money laundering case.

Vaze has told the agency that he was tasked by former home minister Anil Deshmukh (also identified as No. 1 by Vaze) to collect protection money from orchestra bars to allow them to operate despite Covid-19 restrictions. Deshmukh has since been arrested in the case.

Shetty and other hoteliers named in the city police chargesheet are also witnesses in the ED's case.

On the relationship between Singh and Vaze, the chargesheet states that "Singh had made Vaze the head of the crime intelligence unit (a specialised cell of the Mumbai police). He was also assigned some of the high-profile cases to investigate."