Param Bir Singh asked cyber expert to modify report in Antilia bomb scare case, says charge sheet

PTI, Sep 8, 2021, 6:34 PM IST

Mumbai: A cyber expert told the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that then Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh asked him to modify a report about a Telegram channel which accepted responsibility for an SUV with explosives found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani”s house.

Singh also paid him Rs 5 lakh for his services, as per the expert’s statement which is part of the charge sheet submitted in a court here by the NIA last week.

After an SUV with gelatin sticks was found near Ambani”s south Mumbai residence `Antilia”, an outfit called `Jaish Ul Hind” had claimed responsibility for it on social media platform Telegram.

As per the expert, he met Singh around the same time and told him that he had helped the Delhi police”s special cell in its probe into a blast outside Israel”s embassy in January 2021.

The telegram channel on which an outfit called Jaish-Ul Hind had claimed responsibility for the blast was found to be linked to a mobile number used from inside Delhi’s Tihar jail, he told Singh.

Singh asked him to write a similar report for him, the expert told the NIA. He wrote it sitting inside in the commissioner”s office, he added.

“After going through the report, Param Bir Singh asked me to insert the poster that had appeared on the Telegram channel, Jaish Ul Hind claiming responsibility for the Antilia scare,” the statement said.

“Accordingly, I modified my report and inserted the poster that had appeared on the Telegram channel “Jaish-ul-Hind”,” he claimed.

However, the expert also made it clear in the statement that “the Telegram channel Jaish Ul Hind identified and resolved by me was different from the one on which the poster had appeared. The one resolved by me had only three to four members and there was no poster related to Antilia terror scare on that channel.”

Singh then allegedly told him that he wanted to pay him. “I replied that I was not expecting any payment. Singh insisted that I had done excellent work and deserved payment,” the statement said.

The IPS officer asked his personal assistant to pay him Rs 5 lakh, he claimed.

As per the NIA, it was (now dismissed) police officer Sachin Waze who hatched the conspiracy to place a vehicle with explosives near Ambani”s house. Waze wanted to regain his past glory as “supercop” by staging a fake encounter, the charge sheet claimed.

The SUV was found on February 25, and Mansukh Hiran, a Thane businessman who claimed it had been stolen from his possession, was found dead in a creek on March 5.

After Waze”s arrest in the case, Singh was shunted out from the post of Mumbai police commissioner.