16/10/2025 6:00 PM

Dansealsforcongress

Finance Leader

Car bomb, corruption and COVID: ‘Sordid’ drama rocks India’s finance capital

MUMBAI (Reuters) – A senior Mumbai law enforcement officer submitted a complaint in the Supreme Courtroom on Monday accusing a condition government minister of corruption, the most current enhancement in a strange case that has transfixed the media for weeks.

“Each sordid revelation… has chipped away at public self-assurance in the operating of a important arm of federal government in the country’s money capital,” explained an editorial in the Indian Express, 1 of the country’s leading English-language newspapers.

Param Bir Singh, the former head of law enforcement in Mumbai, submitted a petition searching for an “unbiased, uninfluenced, neutral and good investigation” into corruption allegations in opposition to Anil Deshmukh, interior minister of Maharashtra condition that is home to the city.

Deshmukh has denied impropriety.

With promises of graft, a suspicious death and a bomb risk towards India’s richest gentleman, the situation has the hallmarks of a thriller designed by the country’s Bollywood movie market, dominating Tv networks and newspaper front webpages and trending on social media for almost a month.

On Feb. 25, a motor vehicle laden with explosives was observed near the Mumbai household of Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries and is India’s richest man.

The purported proprietor of the car or truck was later on observed useless, with law enforcement managing his demise as suspicious.

Sachin Vaze, a senior Mumbai police officer, was arrested on March 13 by India’s federal Countrywide Investigation Company (NIA) in relationship with the bomb risk. He denies wrongdoing.

In a assertion, Reliance mentioned it was confident law enforcement in Mumbai “will entire their complete investigation quickly”.

Final week, Singh was transferred from his job as Mumbai’s law enforcement commissioner for his handling of the case.

In Monday’s petition, Singh said his transfer was unlawful, and that Deshmukh interfered in police investigations and worked with Vaze and other officers to extort dollars from nearby companies.

Deshmukh denied the allegations, saying that purported meetings with Vaze previous month were unattainable as he was in healthcare facility with COVID-19 and then in quarantine.

The situation is an further headache for the opposition-led authorities in Maharashtra that is already battling a surge in COVID-19 scenarios.

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continuously named for the resignation of main minister Uddhav Thackeray, who turned from the BJP following a electric power-sharing agreement collapsed.

He is thanks to address a news briefing later in the day.

Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai Producing by Alasdair Pal Editing by Nick Macfie