Mumbai: The beleaguered Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of Maharashtra is reeling under the ‘letter-bomb’ posted by former Mumbai Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh. However, it has also emerged that Param Bir Singh has strong ‘family ties’ with leaders close to the BJP. This development will no doubt create some doubts in the minds of those who had been criticising Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
The ace ex-Mumbai top cop’s son Rohan P Singh is married with Rupali S Meghe. The latter is the grand-daughter of a respected senior BJP politician from Nagpur, Dattatraya R Meghe.
Rupali is the daughter of Sagar Meghe. The latter is also an ex-MLC of BJP. He is an academician and businessman-turned-wannabe politician. However, Sagar’s political career failed to ignite after he lost the Lok Sabha elections from Wardha in 2014 as a Congress candidate.
Currently, Sagar is understood to have a setup in Dubai. He is handling the overseas affairs of the reputed chain of educational institutions founded by his illustrious father. Dattatraya, 85, is three-time Lok Sabha and one-time Rajya Sabha MP. He was also a minister in Maharashtra.
After spending four decades and flourishing with the NCP and Congress, in 2014, the Meghes migrated to the BJP. One of Sagar’s siblings Sameer is now a BJP legislator from Hingna assembly seat.
Besides, Param Bir also has another long-standing BJP buddy-link. Officials claimed, he loved to speak about in his long police career – he is a college-friend of the pilot-turned-politico and former Union Minister, BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Though Rudy hails from Bihar, he had studied at the DAV College in Chandigarh. Singh has his family roots in the same city. Police officials said that Param Bir used to frequently boast about his association with Rudy.
Param Singh also has a very cordial connect with the legendary Satya Pal Singh. The latter is a former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. He was a dreaded cop and he closed down the infamous Mumbai mafia. He ensured their activities were virtually paralysed in the 1980-1990s with his band of gun-toting ‘encounter specialists’.
Last year, at the height of the TRP scam probe involving several television channels, Param Bir’s spouse Savita shot into the limelight for being a corporate czarina in her own right.
Presently, as the MVA leaders allege, Param Bir Singh is the newest-found darling of the state BJP. It is virtually working against a ‘next-month deadline’ to oust the Shiv Sena-NCP -Congress government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Political sources speculate that with a race against time, the BJP hopes that ‘letter-bomb shell’ could probably dislodge the MVA government.