Mumbai: A businessman who had lodged an extortion complaint against former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in 2021, has approached the Bombay High Court, seeking to quash the case against the ex-top cop, claiming that he was “ill advised” and “misguided” to lodge the complaint. Ketan Tanna, 55, in his plea, claims he was coerced into filing the complaint against Singh and now wishes to “clear his conscience” by retracting his allegations.
Tanna’s petition, filed earlier this week, asserts that he was threatened with being implicated in false cases if he did not lodge the complaint. He claims that a conspiracy was being plotted against the former senior IPS officer when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power.
On March 31, 2021, Tanna’s plea claims, he was called outside the residence of then Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, where former Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey allegedly informed him that he must file an extortion complaint against Singh.
In July 2021, Tanna lodged the complaint with the Thane police, alleging that between January 2018 and February 2019, while Singh was Thane police commissioner, he extorted Rs1.25 crore from him by summoning him to the Anti-Extortion Cell and threatening to implicate him in criminal cases. To his surprise, the complaint was converted into an FIR within a short span of time.
Tanna now contends in his petition that he was pressured into filing the complaint and could not reveal the truth earlier. He states that he wishes to correct the “herculean error” he committed and has realised the importance of truth prevailing. He now seeks the court’s intervention to quash the case.
Tanna also claimed that at the time, he was assured that filing the complaint would prevent his implication in false cases. He now wishes to unconditionally withdraw the allegations, the FIR, and the prosecution against all accused individuals. Tanna was charged in 2019 under kidnapping and MCOCA allegations.
In addition to Singh, the FIR also named 28 others, including former police officer Pradeep Sharma and alleged gangster Ravi Pujari. Singh was removed as Mumbai police commissioner in February 2021 following the discovery of an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia and the subsequent arrest of police officer Sachin Waze. The plea is likely to come up for hearing on October 8.
