MUMBAI: A special Mumbai court on Wednesday agreed to let dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze become an approver in the corruption case registered against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The court, however, ruled that Vaze will be granted a pardon in the corruption case only after he makes a true and full disclosure of the entire circumstances and events without concealing any evidence in the case against the 72-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader.
Vaze has also asked the Enforcement Directorate to let him become an approver in a related money laundering case against Deshmukh. Apart from the two cases against Deshmukh in which he was the co-accused, Sachin Vaze is also the prime accused in the Antilia explosives scare and the connected murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran, and the custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, an accused in the 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case.
The CBI case in which he was allowed to turn approver was registered by the agency on April 21, 2021 following a letter by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on March 20. In this letter, Param Bir Singh alleged that Deshmukh instructed certain Mumbai police officers, including Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore every month from Mumbai’s bars and restaurants.
Apart from allegations of corruption and extortion from bar owners, CBI also cited Vaze’s reinstatement in service after remaining under suspension for over 15 years and the alleged exercise of undue influence by Deshmukh and others in transfers and postings of senior police officers in the state. Sachin Vaze was suspended in March 2004 after the state CID charged Vaze and three policemen for the custodial death of Khwaja Yunus. Vaze resigned from service in November 2007 but was reinstated in June 2021 during Param Bir Singh’s tenure as Mumbai police commissioner.
Sachin Vaze was first arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on March 13, 2021, in connection with the Antilia explosives scare and Mansukh Hiran’s murder, and has been lodged in Taloja jail. The dismissed police officer was formally arrested in the corruption case against Deshmukh last month.
In its probe into the corruption case, ED alleged that on Deshmukh’s instructions, Vaze allegedly called a meeting of bar owners, and between December 2020 and February 2021, collected ₹4.7 crore from owners of orchestra bars in Mumbai. In his statement to ED, Vaze had revealed that he had handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Kundan Shinde.
Shinde and Palande were first arrested by ED on June 26, 2021 in connection with the money laundering case. On August 23, ED filed charge sheet against them and also named Vaze.
