OPINION | A minister tells his police: “Go and collect Rs 100 crore”
We are at the moment witnessing a sea change in governance. There was a time when underworld gangs used to extort cash and Mumbai police used to catch the extortionists. Now, law enforcement officials are assigned to hold out extortions and ship the cash to the minister. Earlier, terrorists used to plant bombs and police used to catch terrorists. Now a police officer vegetation bomb to scare the nation’s topmost industrialist.
A letter written by former Mumbai Police chief Parambir Singh has set free a cat among the many pigeons contained in the Mantralaya. Comments from Shiv Sena leaders point out that they’re defending Parambir Singh and they need the Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to stop. On the opposite hand, feedback from NCP leaders point out are defending Anil Deshmukh and they wish to entice the ex-police chief.
One optimistic end result from this confrontation between Shiv Sena and NCP is that extortions made by Mumbai Police from restaurant and bar homeowners have now been uncovered by none aside from the town police chief. It is now public information how prime political leaders use the police, each as an instrument and a weapon. They use police as an instrument for finishing up extortion, and as a weapon to intimidate folks. The newest instance of this unbridled terror is the case of intimidating the nation’s prime industrialist Mukesh Ambani.
By opening up the can of worms, ex-police chief Parambir Singh has not directly uncovered the motive behind parking of a car laden with explosives exterior’s Mukesh Ambani’s residence. The letter written by the previous Mumbai police commissioner to the Chief Minister clearly exposes how the Home Minister was utilizing an assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze to hold out extortions.
It is now clear that Sachin Vaze, drunk with the heady alcohol of energy derived from political patronage, was out to extort an enormous sum of cash from Mukesh Ambani. The act of parking a car, full of gelatin sticks, exterior Ambani’s residence, with a threatening letter left inside, was meant to terrorize the industrialist. As I had earlier written, Sachin Vaze was an actor, and it’s now clear that the producer director was none aside from the Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. If the motive was to extort huge cash from Mukesh Ambani, this can go down within the annals of India’s crime historical past as one of many greatest extortion circumstances.
Till now, we, the frequent folks, solely suspected that some ministers in Maharashtra might have been extorting cash and police are accustomed to doing ‘hafta vasooli’ (weekly extortion), however these have been mere assumptions. There have been no evidences. But now the previous police chief of Mumbai has given in writing that the Home Minister used to name his officers and gave them a “target” of amassing Rs 100 crore each month. According to this letter, the minister used to clarify law enforcement officials the modus operandi of amassing cash from bar and restaurant homeowners. It seems as if Anil Deshmukh is an skilled in such issues and he feared no one. He was openly telling law enforcement officials to hold out extortions. Since the police commissioner (Paramabir Singh) was not near him, he went over his head to instruct different law enforcement officials straight. For Anil Deshmukh, Mumbai Police was his ‘jaagir’ (property) and he was performing like an emperor, drunk with energy. Had he not commented on Parambir Singh’s switch, this extortion would have continued in Mumbai, unabated.
When the National Investigation Agency (NIA) discovered that it was Sachin Vaze who had planted the automotive laden with explosives exterior Mukesh Ambani’s residence, and there have been evidences of a minimum of 5 automobiles linked with Vaze used on this case of scaring Ambani, and Vaze tried to take away evidences, the Home Minister felt that the picture of Mumbai Police has been sullied. He took this as a possibility to shunt out the Police Commissioner, and went on to inform the media that it was not a routine switch, and that Paramabir Singh “had committed unpardonable mistakes”. This acquired the goat of the ex-police chief and he determined to reveal the Home Minister. Parambir Singh wrote a letter to the Chief Minister and pointedly point out that he had complained about Deshmukh to each chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar previously.
This just isn’t a difficulty between Parambir Singh and Deshmukh solely. It is a wider concern, about who will acquire management of Mumbai Police: Shiv Sena or NCP? The concern pertains to who will get the facility to extort cash through the use of the police. The confrontation is now main in direction of Uddhav Thackeray versus Sharad Pawar.
The most tragic a part of this sordid episode is that no one is concerned concerning the people who find themselves struggling due to rampant extortions. Nobody is talking concerning the homeowners of bars and eating places who need to shell out cash from their earnings. Their solely accountability is: shell out the cash. It doesn’t matter who will get the cash on the highest degree. These bar and restaurant homeowners are helpless in entrance of police. For them, it doesn’t matter the least, whether or not the Home Minister or Police Commissioner is modified. Pay they have to.
Ultimately, it is the folks, who must determine. They will train their proper to vote on the time of elections and punish the corrupt. People at the moment in Maharashtra are unhappy and sad with each the Shiv Sena and its chief Uddhav Thackeray. They are ready for the suitable time. Parambir Singh has proven braveness. No different senior police officer had ever executed what Parambir Singh did, within the historical past of Maharashtra politics.
It’s potential, Paramabir might need to pay for this however his act will certainly deter the ‘extortionists’. (*100*) us hope {that a} Home Minister or a Chief Minister will now worry earlier than ordering assortment of extortion cash. The media will now be extra alert. More law enforcement officials might now muster the braveness to talk. If this episode ends in discount in circumstances of extortion, we must always thank Paramabir Singh for that. The ex-police chief should additionally bear in mind: Others might attempt to intimidate him, something can occur, however such a second just isn’t going to return once more, he should keep on, with braveness, come what might.
