MUMBAI: In the ongoing saga of mudslinging among senior police officers, a letter by suspended police inspector Anup Dange to additional chief secretary, home, seeking an inquiry into former police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s links with “dubious characters and others who have underworld links” has come to the fore. He has alleged Singh through a relative demanded Rs 2 crore to reinstate him.
Singh rubbished the allegations but declined to elaborate saying the matter is pending in HC. Dange, in his letter dated February 2, also requested that the departmental probe against him be assigned to a senior IAS officer. “I have sent the letter to the CM and home minister too, but haven’t got a reply so far,” Dange told TOI.
Dange was suspended for allegedly naming a person in an FIR without sufficient grounds. In November 2019, Dange said he went to check pubs operating in Akruti building at Breach Candy when a pub owner tried to pressurise him to operate beyond the stipulated deadline, claiming he had connections with Param Bir Singh who was then DG state anti-corruption bureau. TOI had on November 24, 2019 reported the incident where the grandson of film producer Bharat Shah was arrested for allegedly assaulting a cop.
Dange was suspended on 18 July, 2020. He alleged a person identifying himself as a cousin of Singh got in touch with him and that they met at the Prabhadevi residence of the ‘cousin’. After negotiations, he agreed to reduce the demand to Rs 1 crore on behalf of Singh. “I neither had the will nor the capacity to pay this amount,” he said. He also claimed Singh tried to scuttle the probe into assault case.