Probe panel on Param Bir-Deshmukh matter submits report to CM Thackeray

Mumbai, April 26 (IANS) The Justice K.U. Chandiwal Commission - appointed to probe ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh's allegations against then Home Minister Anil Deshmukh - submitted its voluminous report to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray here on Tuesday.

The probe panel has reportedly indicated that the allegations hurled by Singh against Deshmukh were baseless, though officials declined to reveal the report contents.

The Commission conducted over 80 sittings in the past nearly one year and recorded the final statements of Deshmukh, Singh, and dismissed cop Sachin Vaze.

The panel probed the Rs 100-crore corruption allegations levelled by Singh against Deshmukh and also recorded the statements of others like Minister Nawab Malik of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Following the massive row last year in the wake of the probe into planting of a vehicle with 20 gelatin sticks outside the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, culminating into the alleged corruption issues raised by Singh, the state government appointed the Commission on March 30, 2021 with a deadline of six months.

However, its tenure was extended till April 30 this year, and its report was submitted to the state government days before its deadline was to end. The MVA government will take further decision on it including tabling it before the Legislature.

While Deshmukh was forced to quit as Cabinet Minister following Bombay High Court's strong observations, then raided by multiple agencies over 100 times and was finally arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on November 2, 2021, and is in jail since then.

Singh was suspended on December 2, 2021, cried foul at the probe against him, moved the courts for relief, kept away from the COmmission hearings for which he was penalised, and finally all cases against him were handed over to the CBI as per the apex court's directives.