Waze's NIA custody extended till Apr 3; says he was made scapegoat

Mumbai: A special court here on Thursday extended the NIA custody of suspended police officer Sachin Waze, arrested in connection with the recovery of the explosives-laden vehicle near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house, till April 3.

He had nothing to do with the crime and had been made a scapegoat, he told the special NIA court.

Waze (49), an Assistant Police Inspector with Mumbai Crime Branch, was arrested on March 13 by the National Investigation Agency. He was produced before the court after his earlier remand expired. The NIA, which has invoked the stringent provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against Waze, sought his custody for another 15 days.

"I have been made a scapegoat and have nothing to do with the case," Waze told judge P R Sitre during the hearing.

"I was investigating officer of the case for one-and-a-half-days and did whatever I could in that capacity. But there was suddenly a change in some plan somewhere. I went to the NIA office on my own and was arrested," the police officer said, adding he had not confessed to anything.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, the NIA lawyer, told the court that everybody was shocked to find that a policeman was involved in the crime.

During the probe, the NIA recovered 62 bullets from his house and it needed to probe why they were kept there, Singh said. The police department had issued Waze 30 bullets of which only five were recovered, and the rest were yet to be found, the ASG added.

The murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran — who had claimed that the SUV found near Ambani's house had been stolen from his possession — was a connected case and the NIA got the custody of two other accused arrested in that case from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad only the day before, Singh said. They need to confront Waze with the other accused, he added. The NIA has taken over the Hiran case too. However, the judge extended the custody only till April 3.

Meanwhile, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh on Thursday filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe against Maharashtra Home minister Anil Deshmukh, who he claimed asked Waze to collect Rs 100 crore from bars and restaurants.

The PIL also raised the issue of alleged corruption in police transfers and postings in the state.

The IPS officer had earlier this week approached the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday termed the matter as quite serious but asked him to approach the High Court.

The criminal Public Interest Litigation reiterated the allegations Singh had made earlier and sought an "immediate, unbiased, impartial" probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Deshmukh, an NCP leader.

Singh sought an HC direction to the CBI to secure CCTV footage from Deshmukh's residence from earlier this year before it was "destroyed", and to the state government to produce all records of communication received from IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in March 2020.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday said the controversy surrounding Singh's allegation of corruption against Deshmukh is now over for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, he said: "The issue of that letter (written by Singh) is now over for the MVA government. Home minister Anil Deshmukh has also welcomed any inquiry into this matter."