It is both saddening and shocking how a mere assistant police inspector like Sachin Vaze brought disrepute to Mumbai Police, but the bigger question is: How he was being used as a pawn by powerful political forces in Maharashtra? Did top leaders of Shiv Sena provide support and protection to Sachin Vaze?
On Wednesday, BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis alleged that in 2018, when he was in power, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray personally called him up and requested him to reinstate Sachin Vaze, who was under suspension on charges of extortion and custodial death.
Fadnavis said, “I still remember, Uddhav Ji had telephoned me in 2018, asking if it was possible to reinstate Waze. I had said it was not possible.” He said, Sachin Vaze and Parambir Singh (who was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner) were just pawns in a larger game, and when he was CM, he was pressured to reinstate the controversial assistant inspector.
The former CM said, “there is an important question, why was API Sachin Vaze reinstated? He was suspended in 2004. He applied for VRS in 2007. His VRS request was not accepted because there was an inquiry pending against him. When I was CM in 2018, Shiv Sena had been pressurizing us to reinstate Vaze. At that time, I reviewed his past record, I took the advice of the then Advocate General, who told me that there was an inquiry going on by the High Court. That is when I decided against reinstating him.”
Fadnavis alleged that Sachin Vaze had “business relations” with active Shiv Sena leaders. He said, “there should also be a probe into the motive behind his reinstatement (during Uddhav Thackeray’s rule). Was he brought back to extort money from people, because he was given the most important role in Mumbai Police, only next to the police commissioner?.. Therefore, there is a need to find out the political bosses, who are still holding important portfolios, at whose behest Vaze was operating.”
These are serious allegations. The image of Mumbai Police and the role of those who are running the state government is now under question. To put it bluntly: the sparks that flew from the Antilia explosives incident and Mansukh Hiren murder, have now reached the office of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, dislodging the city police commissioner in its wake. That is why Fadnavis is demanding that the NIA must probe who were the political bosses under whose patronage Sachin Vaze was carrying out his nefarious activities.
Fadnavis said, “I am saying this again and again. Vaze and Parambir Singh are small timers. Who are their political bosses? Who will probe the leaders at whose instances these two were working? Look at the manner in which the chief minister was defending Sachin Vaze. Had there been no evidences against him, he would have become a mahatma (great soul) by now. We have to go deep into this matter and find out whose interests Vaze was protecting, because of which he was reinstated. We have to find out the links.”
Fadnavis is making these serious allegations based on evidences and his arguments are logical. The talk of the town now is how could a small-time police officer had the gumption to intimidate India’s top industrialist by parking a vehicle filled with explosives? Vaze planned the plot, he executed it and then went on to remove evidences about his involvement. What did the government do? It handed over the responsibility of investigation into Antilia case to Vaze!
I had said this two days ago: the pointers clearly indicate Vaze was acting as if nobody could challenge him because of the patronage from his political masters. Devendra Fadnavis said the same thing on Wednesday. He said, it would be incorrect to think that Vaze was a mere assistant inspector, he was wielding more power than that of the police commissioner. He was seen at briefings by the chief minister, he was seen with the state home minister.
The second serious allegation that Fadnavis levelled was that Vaze was acting as money collector for his political bosses. Fadnavis alleged: “All the high profile cases in Mumbai, like the Badshah rapper case and Hrithik Roshan fake email case were handed over to Crime Investigation Unit headed by Vaze. He was seen with top Shiv Sena leaders. He was given powers to allow dance bars in Mumbai. I think he was appointed as collection officer by his bosses.”
It is an open fact that Sachin Vaze was feared by police officers in most of the police stations. He was the blue-eyed boy of the state government. The questions raised by Fadnavis are not going to leave Uddhav Thackeray easily. If Vaze was a pawn, what was the real motive behind intimidating Mukesh Ambani by planting a vehicle filled with explosives? What was the motive of his political handlers?
To these questions, Fadnavis said, it was for the NIA to probe and find out. It seems a bigger message was sought to be conveyed by planting the explosives. It could be that the motive was to bring words like ‘ransom’, ‘extortion’ back into the crime lexicon of Mumbai. Was Sachin Vaze only an actor, then who was his director? Till the time, this is not revealed, the real motive behind planting explosives outside Antilia cannot be brought to light.