₹26.8L taken out from Vaze’s joint account after arrest: NIA

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court extended the remand of Sachin Vaze till April 7 during a Saturday hearing of the suspended Mumbai police officer who is under arrest for his alleged role in parking an explosives-laden car outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in February.

Vaze is also being investigated for his role in the death of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran who is linked to the SUV found parked outside Antilia with 20 loose gelatin sticks and a threatening letter addressed to the industrialist. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested two men, Vinayak Shinde (a former cop) and Naresh Gor (a bookie) for their role in the murder and named Vaze as the prime suspect in the case, before the NIA took over the probe on March 20.

The federal probe agency informed the special court that Vaze, the former head of the Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai Crime Branch, had a joint account in the Versova branch of a private bank, which reportedly held a sum of ₹26.80 lakh. However, when the agency searched the branch on March 18, five days after arresting Vaze in connection with the security scare case, it found only Rs. 5,000 in the account. The NIA told the court that the duo owned a locker, which was found to be empty during their search.

The probe agency did not reveal the name of the person whom Vaze reportedly held the account and locker with.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh representing NIA informed the court that the agency needs to interrogate Vaze in custody to find out as to who withdrew the amount from the bank.

“It appears that there was some incriminating material and / or documents in the locker which were also removed, and the agency needs to find out as to who had withdrawn the money and removed contents of the locker and on whose instructions,” he said.

Vaze’s counsel, Abad Ponda, told the court that the 49-year-old cop did not have any such bank account or locker.

Ponda further challenged the NIA’s claim that a haul of evidence from Mithi river last month did not implicate his client.

“Mithi river is an open place for the whole Mumbai and other parts. Anyone can come and drop anything into the river. They (NIA) are just claiming these as recoveries, and they are planting all those things in Vaze’s name,” the ANI reported Ponda as saying.

On March 25, professional divers for the NIA recovered several items from the Mithi river including two CPUs, a laptop, a printer, 2 Digital Video Recorders and a set of registration number plates of a Maruti Eco stolen from Aurangabad in November 2020, all of which had been damaged before being thrown in the river.

Singh said that the NIA needed to confront Vaze about this evidence, as well as 120 TB of data collected from several CCTV footage samples collected in the course of the investigation.

Singh added that during the search at Vaze’s house at Saket Complex in Thane, NIA has recovered a passport of an unknown person and it was yet to be ascertained as to who that person was, how was he connected to Vaze.

Singh said the agency has on April 2 seized one more luxury car, a white Mercedes, in connection with the crime. He, however, did not elaborate as to whom the car belonged and how it was connected to the crime.

He added that the agency had raided in a club in south Mumbai where officials found a diary that indicated that some amounts were paid to Vaze and it was necessary to find out why the amounts were paid to the arrested police officer.

The NIA is also probing Vaze’s reported extortion activities. This comes in the wake of a letter written by former Mumbai police commissioner, Param Bir Singh, who accused the home minister of running an extortion racket and setting a target for police officers, including Vaze, to collect ₹100 crore from establishments like shops.

The senior advocate also opposed the prayer for extension of Vaze’s custody, contending that NIA was seeking extension of his remand 15 days after it invoked provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), but not a single ground under anti-terror Act was mentioned in their remand application.

On March 25, the NIA invoked sections 16 and 18 of the stringent anti-terror law, against Vaze. The two sections deal with conspiring to commit a terror act.

Hiran’s body washed up ashore a creek at Reti Bunder near Mumbra on March 5, with six handkerchiefs stuffed in his mouth and his face covered by a scarf. All his belongings including a gold ring, chain, mobile phone, wrist watch and wallet were missing.

Special court calls for Vaze’s detailed medical report

The special NIA court on Saturday directed the federal agency to submit a detailed medical report, indicating whether Vaze required any treatment or surgical intervention after Vaze addressed the court and claimed that he had blockages in his heart, which required him to undergo an angiography and angioplasty.

Vaze claimed to have suffered stroke-like symptoms last week.

The directive came after Vaze himself addresses the court during hearing on his remand and claimed that he suffered a cardiac stroke on Sunday.

His counsel, Ponda also submitted Vaze’s medical reports to the court on Saturday.

The NIA, however, maintained that Vaze’s eco-cardiogram results were conducted and after perusing the reports, a doctor had opined that Vaze’s heart was working normally. It further told the court that Vaze was under supervision of a doctor.

Vaze on Saturday met his brother Sudharm in the special NIA court and spoke to him for some time with permission of the court. Sudharm also handed over some clothes to Vaze and while stopping out of the court told news channels that he had “full faith in the NIA and our judicial system.”

Sudharm Vaze had filed a habeus corpus petition in the Bombay HC last month challenging the legality of his brother’s arrest, after he was cooperating with the NIA in their investigation. Vaze has denied playing any role in the commission of the crime pertaining to the explosives case.