On 20/3/2021 came reports of Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s Letter to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray in which he had mentioned Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had asked Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze/Vaze to collect 100 crore rupees every month from bars, restaurants and other places. There are about 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai and if a sum of Rs.2-3 lakh rupees each was collected from them, monthly collection of Rs.40-50 crores was achievable. Rest of the collection could be made from other sources.
Later Anil Deshmukh called Sanjay Patil, ACP, Social Service Branch, and through Personal Secretary Palande told Sanjay Patil to make monthly collection of Rs.40-50 crores from 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments.
Param Bir Singh claimed he had been made a scapegoat to divert attention from actual wrongdoers. Anil Deshmukh’s statements regarding his transfer from Police Commissioner to Commandant General of Home Guards were untruthful.
CMO said the letter was received on e-mail and has no signature and not from official id. Param Bir Singh said he sent the letter from personal id.
Sachin Waze is in jail in Antilia case. Maharashtra ATS has arrested Vinayak Shinde and Naresh Gore for murder of Mansukh Hiran whose Scorpio was found with explosives outside Antilia.
Sachin Waze had contested election as Shiv Sena candidate. He was under suspension for many years in Khwaja Yunus case. This letter shifted focus to NCP as Anil Deshmukh belongs to that party.
Owners of bars, restaurants and other establishments should come together and issue a statement on whether they have paid extortion money to police and others over the years and how much.
There have been extortion calls to builders and film industry people and this letter raises the question how many of them were from criminals and how many of them were from police. Julio Ribeiro connected encounter specialists to extortion calls.
Former IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar acknowledged hafta racket where police, politicians, and sometimes reporters and media persons are part of the racket. Restaurant and bar owners and shopkeepers can be challaned by police, municipal authorities, food and drugs department etc. When she was chief of Crime Branch encounters nose-dived and so did extortion calls.
Police are there to protect people from extortionists. When police turn extortionists it is a serious crime. Mostly victims of police extortion do not complain. Extortion needs to end. Punishment for extortion by police should be many times to that extortion by other criminals. Punishment for asking a policeperson to extort by a senior police officer or any other person in authority should be severe and include confiscation of property, jail for many years, life sentence and death penalty.