'Sachin Waze, Param Bir Singh extorted huge money from cricket bookies'
Mumbai: Mumbai Police officer (now dismissed) Sachin Waze, along with the then city Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh extorted huge money from cricket bookies by threatening them with arrest, police told a court here while seeking an extension of Waze's custody in an extortion case registered at suburban Goregaon police station.
The Mumbai Police's Crime Branch had taken Waze's custody on November 1 based on the complaint filed by builder-cum-hotelier Bimal Agrawal, in which Param Bir Singh is also named as an accused.
Waze was produced before a holiday court on Saturday as his remand expired. Police sought an extension of his custody for seven days for further probe, which was allowed by the court till November 13.
Police told the court that Waze and the wanted accused Param Bir Singh extorted a huge amount of money from cricket bookies by threatening them with arrest.
How this was done has to be investigated, the court was told.
The Crime Branch further said they wanted to probe whether Waze took money from anyone else at the instance of Singh and who else, apart from Singh, helped Waze in extortion. The Crime Branch said it wanted to probe the trail of the extorted money.
The Crime Branch also wants to probe how many other such offences have been committed by the accused.
Waze is close to Param Bir Singh and the Crime Branch wants to question him on the current whereabouts of the senior IPS officer, it said, adding the complainants (Agrawal's) voice samples have been sent for a forensic test and witness statements have been recorded.
Mobile phones given to Sachin Waze by the complainant as part of the extortion have also been seized, police said. Agrawal had alleged that the accused extorted Rs 9 lakh from him for not conducting a raid on two bars and restaurants, which he ran in partnership, and also forced him to buy two smartphones worth around Rs 2.92 lakh for them.
The alleged incident occurred between January 2020 and March 2021, police had said.
One of the absconding accused, Alpesh Patel, was arrested from Mehsana railway station in Gujarat, the Crime Branch said.
Waze had played a key role in collecting "illegal gratification" from bar owners while in service as directed by the then Maharashtra Home minister Anil Deshmukh who had asked a private person to hand over a list of bars and orchestra owners in Mumbai to Waze, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the special court on Saturday.
However, the special holiday court judge PR Sitre rejected the agency's demand for an extension of Anil Deshmukh's custody for another nine days and remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days instead.
Anil Deshmukh was arrested by the ED late on Monday night after 12 hours of questioning. A court on Tuesday remanded him in the agency's custody till November 6. He was produced before the special court at the end of his ED custody.
While seeking his further custody, the ED told the court that the NCP leader was evasive in his reply and gave vague answers.
The money laundering case against Deshmukh and others was made out after the CBI booked him in a corruption case related to allegations of at least Rs 100 crore bribery made by the former Mumbai Police Commissioner.
