In a move that would surprise all, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) chief, Director General of Police (DGP) Param Bir Singh has filed an additional affidavit before the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court in which he apologised for an error in his earlier affidavit that he filed on December 20 in which he blamed Sanjay Barve his predecessor for not going through his documents of 2018 that would have proved the innocence of the then irrigation minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar. Barve had filed an affidavit before the court in 2018 in which he had said that Pawar was involved in awarding irrigation contracts.
On the other hand, Singh’s first affidavit filed on December 20 held that there was no criminal liability as far as Pawar was concerned.
In his first affidavit, Singh said that Barve failed to ‘notice’ a letter dated March 26, 2018, from the Water Resources Department in response to a query by the Superintendent of Police, Amravati, which would have turned the case in Pawar’s favour. In the second affidavit, Singh said Barve did mention the letter in his own affidavit but did not deal with it. The error, Singh said, took place as the letter bore only the month and year, but not the date.
Tendering an unconditional apology, Singh changed the sentence, “However, unfortunately, it appears that the same (the letter) was not noticed by Barve which fact becomes clear from the fact that neither it is mentioned nor contents of which are dealt with anywhere in the aforesaid affidavit. However, unfortunately, Sanjay Barve has not dealt with the same anywhere in the aforesaid affidavit,” he added.
