Param Bir Singh shunted out, Hemant Nagrale takes over as Mumbai Police Commissioner

New Delhi: Under fire over the handling of the bomb scare outside billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house in Mumbai, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday swapped out Param Bir Singh for senior IPS officer Hemant Nagrale as the city's Police Commissioner as the former was moved to the low-key Home Guard.

Nagrale, a 1987-batch IPS officer, has handled cases such as the Ketan Parekh scam and the Harshad Mehta controversy.

Singh's transfer came even as the case of recovery of gelatin sticks near Ambani's residence turned murkier with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claiming there were "other players" who had been allegedly instructing arrested policeman Sachin Vaze. NIA sources said the case had virtually been cracked and soon the "entire conspiracy" behind it would be unravelled.

"Big decision of the government. Shri Hemant Nagrale will be the new Mumbai Police Commissioner. Shri Rajnish Seth will have the additional charge of the post of Director General of Police, Maharashtra," tweeted state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier in the day.

Vaze is at the focus of NIA's probe in the recovery of an SUV with explosives near Ambani's house. An 'encounter specialist' of the 1990 batch of the state police cadre, Vaze was suspended in 2004 over his role in the custodial death of a 2002 Ghatkopar blast suspect Khwaja Yunus and was reinstated last year.

An 'encounter specialist' of the 1990 batch of the state police cadre, Vaze was suspended in 2004 over his role in the custodial death of a 2002 Ghatkopar blast suspect Khwaja Yunus and was reinstated last year.

The NIA team recovered some "incriminating" documents and electronic evidence such as laptop, iPad and mobile phones from Vaze's office, an official of the agency said on Tuesday.

A black Mercedes car, being used by Vaze, was also seized from a parking lot near the CSMT station, and Rs 5 lakh in cash, a note-counting machine, two number plates and some clothes were recovered from it, the official added.

The former owner of the Mercedes car has said he will "fully cooperate" with the probe agency if it approaches him for any information related to the vehicle. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government's decision to transfer Singh follows a series of meetings among the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance leaders after Vaze's association with the Shiv Sena came to the fore.

Furthermore, amid attacks from the BJP, Maharashtra minister Jayant Patil said the NIA should complete its probe into the recovery of the explosive-laden SUV then announce the conclusion, instead of disclosing the investigation details in-between.