Thane court grants bail to builder, aide in extortion case

Thane: A Thane court on Wednesday granted bail to two persons, including a builder, who were arrested in an extortion case in which senior Maharashtra IPS officer Param Bir Singh is also an accused along with a few other police officers.

Additional sessions judge RR Kakani granted bail to builder Sanjay Punamiya and his associate Sunil Jain, who were arrested in August.

Punamiya and Jain are among five accused named in the Rs 5-crore extortion case registered at the Kopri police station in Thane city a few months ago. Singh, who served as the police commissioner of Thane and later Mumbai, is one of the accused named in the extortion FIR.

The IPS officer was shunted out from the post of Mumbai police chief in March this year in the aftermath of the recovery of an SUV with explosives near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in south Mumbai.

The extortion case was registered on a complaint filed by a kin of a local real estate developer.