Mumbai, March 17: In a big development, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh was on Wednesday transferred and he has been appointed as director-general Home Guards, which is considered a punishment posting in the Mumbai Police circle.
Hemant Nagrale, currently Maharashtra’s acting Director General of Police has been appointed as the next Mumbai Police chief.
The high-profile transfer has come amidst the probe into the Mukesh Ambani Antilia bomb scare case, in which Mumbai Police API Sachin Waze has been arrested.
The announcement of the transfer was made by Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. He said: “Param Bir Singh transferred and posted as DG Home Guard. Hemant Nagrale appointed as the new Commissioner of Mumbai Police.”
The development came hours after Singh called on state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray amid the ongoing probe into the Mumbai bomb scare case.
The meeting also came in the backdrop of the arrest of Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is now probing the Antilia bomb scare case. Waze was taken into custody by the NIA on March 13.
He was with the Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) till recently.
It may be recalled that an explosives-laden SUV was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia on February 25.
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Now-shunted Param Bir Singh met CM Thackeray at the latter’s official residence ‘Varsha‘ on Tuesday night, sources said.
The NIA earlier today confirmed that the man is seen in a CCTV footage walking near Antilia on the night of February 25 was none other than Sachin Waze.
“In the CCTV footage, Sachin Waze could be seen with his head covered with a large handkerchief so that no one could identify him. He was wearing an oversized kurta-pyjama, and not PPE coverall, in an attempt to mask his body language and face,” the NIA said.
“A laptop was seized from the cabin of Sachin Waze in a raid day before yesterday but all the data in it was already deleted. He was asked for his cell phone and he had said that he had dropped it somewhere. But the fact is that he had intentionally thrown it away,” the anti-terror agency added.
Waze’s name had first cropped up in the death of Mansukh Hiren, the owner of the Scorpio SUV that was found on Carmichael Raod outside Antilia on February 25.
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Hiren’s body was discovered in a creek on March 5 in Thane. His wife had named Waze as a suspect.
Waze was then transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Centre at the Mumbai Police Headquarters. He is currently in NIA custody till March 25.
