Mumbai, Aug 4 Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday asked why former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh has not been named as an accused in the Antilia bomb scare case despite being identified as the "mastermind" of the conspiracy in the Maharashtra ATS and NIA probes.
In a post on X, Deshmukh sought to know why the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which investigated the case, did not name Singh as an accused.
He claimed he had transferred Param Bir Singh from the post of Mumbai police commissioner after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) investigation pointed to his alleged role in the case involving an explosives-laden SUV found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence, Antilia, in February 2021.
Deshmukh alleged that Singh later "retaliated by levelling false allegations" that he had demanded Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants through police officers.
He further claimed that after the Antilia probe was transferred to the NIA, the central agency's investigation also found Singh to be the mastermind of the conspiracy, alleging that the plot had been hatched in the then police commissioner's office.
The former home minister said statements of several officials from the Mumbai Police Commissioner's office had also brought out these facts.
Referring to proceedings in the Bombay High Court, Deshmukh claimed that while granting bail to one of the accused in the case, Justice Revati Mohite Dere had questioned the NIA over why Param Bir Singh had not been made an accused.
"Despite all this, why has the NIA not named Param Bir Singh as an accused?" Deshmukh asked.
The Antilia case relates to the recovery of an explosives-laden vehicle near Ambani's south Mumbai residence on February 25, 2021. The probe was later transferred from the ATS to the NIA.
A special NIA court in Mumbai on Saturday framed charges against 10 persons, including former policemen Sachin Waze and Pradeep Sharma, in the Antilia bomb scare case and the linked murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.
Besides Waze and Sharma, the other accused in the case are Riyazuddin Kazi, Sunil Mane, Vinayak Shinde, Anand Jadhav, Satish Tirupati Mothkuri, Manish Vasantbhai Soni, Naresh Gaur and Santosh Shelar. Kazi, Mane and Shinde are also former policemen.
