Param Bir Singh transfer, grudge or convenience?

After the Antilia bomb scare case, where an Innova car was witnessed with explosives on February 25 outside Mukesh Ambani’s house, Param Bir Singh was replaced as the Mumbai Commissioner because of some "unforgivable" lapses that had been revealed in the Mukesh Ambani security scare probe.

However, in an editorial in Saamana, the Shiv Sena party mouthpiece, claimed that his transfer does not mean he is guilty. Furthermore, as Param Bir Singh spearheaded the cases of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and the TRP scam, Sena wrote that a lobby in Delhi had grudges against him, following the unearthing of the TRP scam.

In the past, Param Bir Singh had busted the TRP racket, claiming that channels were manipulating the TRP ratings and the data released by BARC. He further added that TV channels like Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema - are all involved in the racket, and officials have arrested the owners of Marathi channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema. This had created widespread outrage across the state and the country leading to conjecture about the said media houses and their loyalties.

Meanwhile, a look at Maharashtra in the last few months clearly shows that the politics of the state has created the circumstances for the same. It is evident that the state government, fearing continual flak for the mishandling of the bomb scare case outside Ambani’s residence replaced Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh with senior IPS officer Hemant Nagrale.

However, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been at loggerheads since, with the latter claiming that Param Bir and Vaze happened to be “small players” and those “operating Vaze are still sitting in the government”.

In this interesting turn of events, what seems suspicious is the central agency, NIA, which seems to be hyperactive in investigating the case did little to nothing in the Uri attack, Pathankot, and Pulwama attack. Moreover, the alleged suicide of BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma also raises questions against the party and its intentions.