CBI court rejects Sachin Waze’s bail plea in corruption case against Anil Deshmukh

A special CBI court on Wednesday denied bail to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze who had claimed that he was no more an accused after he became an approver, but a prosecution witness against former home minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case.

Waze argued in his bail plea that the CBI had consented to grant him pardon and allow him to depose as their witness against Deshmukh, but he was now being treated like an accused. “I am not an accused; I am a witness in the case. I am entitled to being discharged from the case. But, I am an unfortunate person who has been pardoned but is being kept in jail.”

The CBI, however, opposed the plea, contending that section 306(4)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code provides for grant of pardon to an accused but that does not mean he is to be discharged from the case. The call on his discharge can be taken only after he deposes before the court and the prosecution certifies that he can be granted pardon, the agency said in its written reply.

As per the provisions, every person accepting a tender of pardon shall, unless he is already on bail, be detained in custody until the termination of the trial, the CBI said, adding in view of this, Waze’s plea seeking bail was not maintainable.

“The purpose of detaining the approver in custody till the end of the trial is not with the objective of punishing the approver to have come forward to depose in support of the prosecution, but to protect the approver from the possible indignation, rage and resentment of his associates in the crime against whom he has decided to speak, by becoming an approver,” the reply said.

The CBI also said that further investigation is still in progress and Waze’s previous bail plea was rejected in June 2022. While dismissing the plea, the CBI court had discussed the issue of the scope of bail for an accomplice who had been tendered pardon pending trial, the probe agency added.

After hearing the submissions from both sides, the special court dismissed Waze’s bail petition.

The CBI had registered an FIR on April 21, 2021, after completing a preliminary enquiry into the allegations made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh that Deshmukh had instructed Waze and some other police officers to collect ₹100 crore every month from owners of bars and restaurants in Mumbai. Sing had made the allegations in a letter to then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others on March 20, 2021.

The Enforcement Directorate, which subsequently began its money laundering probe, claimed that Waze had accordingly called a meeting of bar owners, and between December 2020 and February 2021, collected ₹4.7 crore and handed over the “extorted money” in two instalments to Deshmukh’s personal assistant.

Waze is the prime accused in the Antilia explosives scare and the connected murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran.