Giving a new twist to the case, in his complaint made to Mumbai Police Commissioner D N Jadhav on February 18, a copy of which is with Newsline, Singh has said that during his police custody in 2007, he had overheard a conversation between police officers that he was being physically and mentally harassed at the behest of then state Director General of Police P S Pasricha since he (Pasricha) suspected Singh’s involvement with police officer Pradeep Sharma (encounter specialist) in leaking information on Pasricha allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. Singh wanted the police to probe whether the facts of the conversation were true.

Pasricha was given a clean chit by the State government last year after an inquiry was initiated following reports in a section of the media on his wealth.

In his complaint, Singh also alleged that he was tortured by the investigating officers when he refused to name Sharma as a co-accused in the Malad land-grabbing case. Singh alleged that he was regularly threatened by the investigating officers with dire consequences if he did not name Sharma as a co-accused.

When contacted on Friday, after giving charge to the new DGP A N Roy, Pasricha said, “I do not care or bother about the allegations levelled against me. It is below my dignity to comment on this.”