Param Bir Singh
Param Bir Singh (born 20 June 1962) is a retired Indian Police Service officer of the 1988-batch Maharashtra cadre who served as Commissioner of Mumbai Police from February 2020 to March 2021.[1][2] He earned a master's degree in sociology from Panjab University in 1983 before joining the IPS.[3] During his career, Singh was involved in high-profile investigations, including probes into underworld activities in the 1990s and the 2006 Malegaon blasts as head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.[4][5] Singh's tenure as Mumbai Police chief ended amid the Antilia bomb scare investigation, after which he publicly accused then-Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of directing police officers to collect ₹100 crore monthly in bribes from hotels and other establishments.[4] These allegations prompted the Bombay High Court to order a CBI preliminary inquiry, which evolved into a full probe leading to Deshmukh's arrest in 2022 on corruption charges.[6][7] In response, Maharashtra authorities filed multiple extortion and misconduct cases against Singh, resulting in his suspension and an absconder declaration in one instance, though the Supreme Court granted him protection from arrest.[8][9] Several cases against Singh were later closed by the CBI due to insufficient evidence, including a 2025 closure report in one extortion matter and a 2024 clean chit in another.[10][11] In May 2023, following a change in state government leadership, all charges were dropped and his suspension revoked, allowing his retirement in June 2022 without active disciplinary proceedings.[12][13] Earlier in his career, Singh faced accusations of torture in the Malegaon case from Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, though no convictions resulted from these claims.[14]