The Bombay High Court has put the former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh in a quandary from which he cannot easily wriggle out. Hearing his plea for action on his letter-bomb against Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Chief Justice C J Datta rebuked him, “You are a police commissioner, why should the law be set aside for you? … There has to be an FIR to investigate. Who stops you from filing an FIR? Prima facie observation is that there can be no investigation without an FIR.”
Pointedly, the court told Singh that should the police decline to register the FIR he could approach a magistrate. Singh clearly did not foresee being thus pushed to the wall, assuming the court would order a probe against Deshmukh. But the court cornered the former CP, asking why he had failed to get sworn affidavits from the two subordinates who were asked by the HM to collect Rs100 crore in bribes every month.
“You are asking for directions for investigations to be handed over to the CBI. Where is the FIR and investigations so that it can be handed over to the CBI?” Justice Dutta asked. The court proceedings leave Singh with little wiggle room. He may have written the letter in anger at his removal as CP, but the matter is out of his hands now. Either he lodges the FIR or he is no Singh, actually a crybaby who on being stripped of the lucrative perch threw a nasty tantrum.
