Vaze suspended again, CCTV grab under probe
After a CCTV grab showed a person walking near Ambani’s residence, the NIA is investigating whether that person was Vaze.
Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze was suspended by Mumbai police on Monday following his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with its probe into the recovery of explosives from an SUV parked near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence last month, even as his brother Sudharm Vaze filed a habeas corpus petition in the Bombay high court against the arrest, claiming that Vaze was being made a “scapegoat” by “certain political powers”.
Vaze, 49, remained the centre of political debate as leaders from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said his arrest would allow further investigation into ruling Shiv Sena leaders. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar met on Monday afternoon to deliberate on damage-control measures. According to leaders of the ruling coalition, Pawar and Thackeray discussed a strategy to find a way out of the crisis. Thackeray also met Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole.
Vaze, a former head of the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai Crime Branch, was initially the lead investigator after a Scorpio car carrying 20 loose gelatin sticks (unassembled, with no detonator or timer) was found near Antilia on Carmichael Road on February 25, but the case was transferred to the NIA on March 8.
Police spokesperson and deputy commissioner S Chaitanya said: “API Sachin Vaze has been placed under suspension by an order of the additional commissioner of police, special branch.”
The NIA collected CCTV footage from the Mumbai police control room as well as from several sites in Mumbai and Thane. After a CCTV grab showed a person walking near Ambani’s residence, the NIA is investigating whether that person was Vaze. Two NIA officers also visited Vaze’s house in Saket, Thane on Monday afternoon, to question his family.
Sudharm’s petition stated that Vaze cooperated with the NIA gave them all the corroborative pieces of evidence and yet, after several hours of interrogation, he was arrested without being served a copy of the FIR or being informed of the nature of allegations against him.
This is the second time that Vaze has faced suspension. In 2004, he was suspended after being arrested for the alleged custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, an accused in a 2002 bomb blast that took place in Ghatkopar. Vaze eventually left the force in 2007. He was reinstated in 2020 after the suspension order was revoked. His reinstatement has been challenged by Yunus’s mother in the Bombay high court.
Vaze is also under the scanner for the mysterious death of 48-year-old Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran, who was linked to the Scorpio found outside Ambani’s residence. Hiran was found dead in a creek in Thane district on March 5.
Vaze was transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Centre last week, after leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis sought his arrest following the statement of Hiran’s wife Vimla that she suspected Vaze had a hand in the death. Since then, Vaze has also become the subject of a political slugfest between the coalition partners of the MVA government and the opposition BJP.
“Sachin Vaze has been suspended once again. But why, how, on what basis and who reappointed him on June 6, 2020? It should be investigated. Persons responsible must be punished,” BJP leader Kirit Somaiya tweeted on Monday.
BJP legislator Nitesh Rane on Monday alleged that Yuva Sena leader Varun Sardesai was linked to Vaze in the latter’s alleged extortion racket from bookies during the previous Indian Premier League. Rane demanded that the NIA seek the call detail records of Vaze and Sardesai. Sardesai refuted these claims and said, “The allegations that the BJP legislator made today are baseless and therefore I am going to file a criminal defamation against legislator Nitesh Rane. He should either apologise in 7 days for false allegations or face legal action and prove them.”