New Delhi: Former Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh's allegations against Home minister Anil Deshmukh are just meant to remove attention from the investigation into the Mukesh Ambani security scare case, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Monday. Singh's corruption allegations against the Home minister have landed the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government into a huge controversy since last week.
Pawar had questioned the officer's motives on Sunday, pointing out that he had made the allegations only after being moved out from the top post over the lapses in the investigation into the Ambani bomb scare case.
"The important issue is the Ambani bomb scare case. After the arrests made by the Anti-Terror Squad, it is now clear who killed Hiren. During the investigation it will be revealed why did these two kill Mansukh Hiren... on whose behalf," Pawar told reporters.
"The Mumbai ATS probing is in the right direction. Now to divert that, vague allegations have been levelled by Param Bir Singh," Pawar said.
The veteran leader of the Nationalist Congress Party also ruled out any action against the Home minister, a member of his party.
Deshmukh, he said, was ailing and in hospital at the time he had allegedly met police officer Sachin Vaze and discussed an extortion racket. From February 5 to 27, he was first in the hospital and then recuperating at his home in Nagpur. "So in such a situation, question does not arise about the resignation," he said.
Meanwhile, the former Mumbai Commissioner of Police moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking direction for immediate "unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair" CBI probe into alleged corrupt malpractices of Deshmukh.
Singh also sought quashing of the order transferring him from the post of Mumbai CP alleging it to be arbitrary and illegal.
As an interim relief, Singh sought a stay of the operation of his transfer order and direction to the state government, the Centre and the CBI to immediately take in its custody the CCTV footage from the residence of Deshmukh.
The petitioner has invoked writ jurisdiction of this court to seek unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair investigation in the corrupt malpractices of Anil Deshmukh, the Home Minister of Government of Maharashtra before the evidences are destroyed, he said in his plea.
The BJP on Monday demanded the resignation of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government headed by Uddhav Thackeray in the wake of Singh's claim that the state's Home minister set a Rs 100-crore collection target for the police every month, and sought a CBI inquiry into the allegation.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha amidst protests by the Shiv Sena and the NCP, BJP member Manoj Kotak said according to Singh's letter to the Chief Minister, the state's Home minister had asked suspended Assistant Police Inspector (API) Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants in the metropolis every month.
BJP member Rakesh Singh that the issue is so serious that it can't be termed a state subject as it has a national implication.