NCP accuses ex-Mumbai top cop of 'lying'

Mumbai: TWO days after former Mumbai Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh's 'letter-bomb', the Nationalist Congress Party on Monday alleged the IPS officer of not being truthful and issued a video Statement raising serious doubts on the sequence of events mentioned in the letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

NCP National Spokesperson and Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said there were 'too many' loopholes and until a full-fledged probe was carried out into all allegations raised, "there's no question of Deshmukh's resignation".

Malik said that he (Singh) wrote the letter after he had been removed from the post of Mumbai CP. "Moreover, on the relevant dates mentioned in the letter, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was on a tour of Vidarbha from February 1-5, later he was in quarantine for coronavirus and under treatment till his Covid-19 report came negative by February 27," Malik said.

He claimed that as soon as Singh got the inkling of his transfer on March 17, he created the WhatsApp chats on March 16 with a sense of urgency in his messages. "There are many such questions. However, the allegations he has raised are serious so there will be a full-fledged probe into them. Until the outcome of the probe, there's no question of Deshmukh's resignation," Malik asserted.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi's other allies Shiv Sena and Congress also reiterated that Singh's letter was "a conspiracy to destabilize the government" and ostensibly written under "pressure" from central agencies.

While Revenue Minister (Congress) Balasaheb Thorat said that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) keeps targeting the government and different ministers, Sena's Chief Spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said that the issue has "served to malign the image of the MVA".