MUMBAI, July 11 -- In a relief to former Mumbai police commissioner (CP) Param Bir Singh and 32 others, the Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a closure report in a 2022 case based on a complaint lodged by a police inspector. The CBI said that the allegations of the inspector, B R Ghadge, who worked under Singh when he was Thane CP, "could not be substantiated" and the case was sought to be closed for "want of evidence". Among the 33 accused were 17 former and serving police officials and a few law officers and forensic officials. In January 2024, the CBI had submitted a closure report in another case, one of five cases against Singh and others, which it took over from the Kopri police station in Thane on the orders of the Supreme Court. When contacted, Singh told Hindustan Times, "I only want to say: Satyamev Jayate (Truth alone triumphs)". The former CP said that all the five cases against him were fabricated and registered at the behest of a former Mumbai police commissioner and some other police officers, and that criminal elements had been contacted to implicate him in the cases. The CBI closure report states that the complainant Ghadge had alleged that when he was probing a case concerning the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) registered with the Bazarpeth police station, Singh, on April 15, 2015, verbally directed him to send the report to the commissioner of KDMC, delete the name of the accused, and remove certain sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act from the case. Ghadge stated that after his refusal to do so, he was implicated in five police cases, including an Arms Act case, and was suspended from service as a result. The CBI also looked into Ghadge's other allegation that illegal directions on the Bazarpeth case were given to him again over the phone by Singh on April 22, 2015. The CBI's closure report, a copy of which is with HT, states that the April 15 and April 22 allegations were both unsubstantiated. The CBI probe found that Ghadge, along with D Kiratkar, his then colleague, had been called to Singh's office with the Bazarpeth case documents for discussion. Later, Kiratkar allegedly stated that after the discussion, when Ghadge came out of Singh's chamber, he informed him that Singh had directed him to favour some KDMC officials in the case. The CBI probe, however, concluded that Kiratkar's statement was "only hearsay". The closure report also states that as Kiratkar was an accused in a 2015 bribery case, his version "could not be relied upon for being an interested party". The report also states that Singh had told the complainant that if the KDMC officers had committed any irregularity, a lapse report in that respect should be sent to the KDMC commissioner, and in case money had exchanged hands to help builders, to send a report to the anti-corruption department and inform him as early as possible. "The directions of April 22, 2015, do not contain elements of any criminality on the part of Param Bir Singh," says the closure report. The assertion of the complainant that he had reported the alleged illegal directions received over the phone to Chandrakant Thorat, the then ACP, also has no corroboration, the closure report states. Thorat allegedly stated that the complainant did inform him about the call received from Singh but the contents of the discussion were not shared with him. Referring to the complainant's submission of CDs in this connection, the CBI said that they too could not substantiate the allegations of illegal verbal directions. During the investigation, the CBI also examined the facts and circumstances of the five cases against Ghadge to ascertain if they were registered without legal justifications. The investigative body could not find evidence to substantiate Ghadge's allegations that they were false cases registered against him on the directions of Singh after he refused to follow his orders in the Bazarpeth case....