Extortion case: Ex-cop Sachin Waze’s bail plea rejected

Mumbai: A metropolitan magistrate court recently rejected the bail plea of dismissed police officer Sachin Waze in connection with an extortion case.

Waze, Param Bir Singh, former Mumbai police commissioner, and a few others were booked on August 25, 2021, after hotelier and civic contractor Bimal Agarwal lodged a complaint in the Goregaon police station. Agarwal alleged that the accused threatened to register cases against two bars owned by him and extorted ₹11.92 lakh. The offence had reportedly taken place between January 2020 and March 2021.

The case was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on orders of the Supreme Court.

Waze, who was arrested in this case on November 1, 2021, had sought bail, claiming that he had finished almost half of the maximum sentence which could be handed down to him if proven guilty. The CBI opposed the bail plea.

The court, while rejecting the bail plea, said, “The charges for which Waze was booked were punishable with imprisonment of up to 10 years, and Waze was arrested on November 1, 2021. Thus, the accused had not undergone a detention period of half of the maximum imprisonment provided for the offence, and therefore, he cannot get the benefit of the concerned provisions of the law.”

Besides Singh and Waze, others accused who have been named in the chargesheet include Alpesh Patel and Sumit Singh, alias Chintu. While Waze is in judicial custody, Patel and Sumit are out on bail. Police are yet to file a chargesheet against two other accused in the case, Vinay Singh and Riyaz Bhati.

Waze was first arrested by the National Investigation Agency in March 2021 for allegedly parking an explosives-laden Scorpio outside Antilia – the south Mumbai residence of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani – and the subsequent murder of the SUV owner, Thane-based trader Mansukh Hiran. Waze, who is also an accused in Khwaja Yunus custodial death case, was dismissed from service in May 2021.