Mumbai police invite tainted Kripa to their Iftar party

That only a fine line divides our nationrsquos lawmakers from its lawbreakers comes as no news On Monday however even that line was blurred and dissolved as representatives from the two sides cast aside the sham of pretense and came together to hobnob in full public glare and under the arc lights lsquoSpecialrsquo guest Atu00a0the Iftar party venue at Haj House graft accused Kripashankar Singh shared centre stage with CM Prithviraj Chavan and other top cops including CP Arup Patnaik Congressrsquo tainted MLA Kripashankar Singh was one of the lsquospecialrsquo guests at an iftar party organised by Mumbai Police at the Haj House on Monday where he was seen rubbing shoulders with the statersquos lsquosqueakycleanrsquo chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and other political bigwigs Singhrsquos presence is a matter of particular embarrassment to Mumbai Police which incidentally has been conducting investigations against him What black sheepu00a0Tainted MLA Kripashankar Singh hobnobbed with top cops at the party in Haj House on Monday he was also seen rubbing shoulders with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and other political bigwigs Mumbai Police lodged an FIR against the politician in February this year for graft charges In March Mumbai cops raided and attached various properties acquired questionably by Singh In the subsequent month a special investigation team of policemen submitted a report on Singh in the High Court which then issued an order to Mumbai Police to attach his benami properties The same police force on Monday hosted the tainted politico at its party where he shared the podium with Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik joint commissioner of police crime Himanshu Roy joint commissioner of police law and order Rajneesh Sheth additional commissioner of police Niket Kaushik All the deputy commissioners of Mumbai police were also present at the event Handinglove The political leaders and cops seemed to have no qualms hobnobbing with Singh He appeared to share an easy familiarity with Chavan even whispering into the latterrsquos ears He was seen interacting with other political bigwigs including state home minister RR Patil textile minister Mohammad Arif Naseem Khan and other bureaucrats Promoting lsquoharmonyrsquo ldquoThe iftar party is an annual function that the Mumbai police arranges for the Muslim community to create harmonyrdquo said an officer from the Mumbai police department Questioned about the lsquoother kindrsquo of harmony on display at the party mdash that between cops and a politician under their scanner for graft mdash he said ldquoThe person who sent out invitations for the event should have realised that we only recently booked Singh and his family members mdash wife Maltidevi son Narendra daughterinlaw Ankita daughter Sunita and soninlaw Vijay Pratap Singh A slew of charges have been levelled against Singh mdash under Section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act for criminal misconduct by a public servant Sections of the IPC have also been invoked against him mdash including Section 420 cheating 464 making a false document 467 forgery of valuable securities and 468 forgery for the purpose of cheating ldquoThe investigation is being conducted by the special investigation team of the Mumbai policerdquo said the police officer Coming up roses Not only did the cops invite the errant politico they also left no stone unturned in according him all the graces due to a lsquospecialrsquo guest ldquoSingh was invited by the Mumbai police and he was welcomed at the gate by the Commissioner of police Arup Patnaik Later a bouquet of flowers was presented to him by the Joint Commissioner of Police for Law and Order Rajneesh Shethrdquo said the police officer The slew of charges against Singh has done nothing to deter the Congressman from making confident public appearances Last month Singh was spotted in one of the backbenches at the monsoon session of the State Assembly chatting with other legislators with great ease He was even visible at the recent funerals of screen legends Rajesh Khanna and Dara Singh last month lsquoDouble standardsrsquo In March the investigating cops had unearthed 460 bullets from Singhrsquos house most of which were unaccounted for ldquoSuch incidents will demoralise the police department On one hand the commissioner suspended police constables who had said lsquohellorsquo to D K Rao or Sanjay Dutt and on the other hand he is welcoming Singh who should have been behind bars by now and have his property seizedrdquo said retired IPS officer and advocate Y P Singh The spokesperson for the Mumbai Police did not make himself available for comment despite several attempts made by MiD DAY to contact himu00a0 Corrupt man in the ranks Oh wellhellip In spite of the fact that Singh is stuck neck deep in corruption charges the Congress party seems unwilling to sever the umbilical cord and disassociate itself from the accusedu00a0 Singh resigned from his post as Mumbairsquos Congress unit chief in the face of the Bombay High Courtrsquos verdict on a PIL lodged against him but the party still hasnrsquot nominated another leader to take his place The party took no action against Singh opting to wait till Supreme Court responds to his appeal challenging the Bombay High Courtrsquos verdict u00a0 u00a0 A party member speaking in confidence asked how or why the party could initiate action till the Supreme Court found the politician guiltyu00a0 u00a0 mdash With inputs from Ravikiran Deshmukh