The lawyer for former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh is likely to respond to the Supreme Court today about his whereabouts. During the last hearing on Thursday, the Supreme Court made it plain that it would not consider Singh’s request for protection against arrest in an alleged extortion case until his whereabouts were known.
On November 18, a bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul told Singh’s lawyer that his plea would be heard “only when he tells us where he is in the country or the world.”
“No protection, no hearing until we have an answer to the question of where you are,” the court informed Singh’s lawyer, who then requested a delay until Monday.
The Supreme Court also took issue with Singh’s petition for protection being filed through a power-of-attorney holder.
Bimal Agarwal, a restaurateur, claimed that the accused extorted Rs. 11.92 lakh from him by threatening to file criminal charges against two of his businesses, Boho Restaurant and BCB Bar.
Singh, Maharashtra’s second-highest-ranking Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, was declared a proclaimed criminal by a Mumbai court on Wednesday after he went missing in March and failed to appear in court despite many summons and warrants filed against him.
This was the first time a Mumbai police commissioner had been charged with a felony. Singh, who was 59 years old at the time, was the city’s 43rd police commissioner.
Singh, who is currently the Director General of the Home Guards, last reported to work in May and then went on leave. In October, the state police notified the Bombay high court that his whereabouts were unknown.
The petition was filed in response to a Bombay high court decision on September 16 dismissing Singh’s plea challenging two preliminary investigations launched by the Maharashtra government against him.
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