MUMBAI: A special court on Wednesday agreed to let dismissed 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).
Vaze had approached the special court last week, seeking permission to turn approver and testify against 72-year-old Deskhmukh, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader. The CBI consented to Vaze’s request to turn witness for the prosecution “in order to unravel the truth and to prove the role and complicity of other accused persons in commission of offences.”
“If accused Sachin Vaze volunteers to make full and true disclosure of the whole circumstances within knowledge about his involvement/role and the involvement of other accused persons in the case, this Hon’ble Court by imposing just and proper conditions, may pass an appropriate order for making him an approver in the interest of justice in accordance with law,” the agency told the court.
Vaze has also asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) 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.
The agency told the court that Vaze’s confessional statement was already recorded and deposited in a sealed envelope. The agency claimed “the role of Vaze is that of an accomplice/facilitator in the commission of offence. Moreover, he is aware of the modus operandi adopted by the other accused persons in collection of bribe and also has first-hand knowledge about the role of the other accused persons in the commission of the offence.”
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.
