New Delhi: Arrested Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze had checked into five star hotels in South Mumbai under the name S. Khamkar more than 50 times in the last three months using fake Aadhaar cards and with bags full of money, NIA sources told ThePrint.
The central investigation agency’s findings are part of its probe into the SUV that was found about a month ago near Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia, carrying explosive gelatin sticks. The case turned murkier when the owner of the SUV, Mansukh Hiren, was found dead a few days later.
According to sources, the NIA is in possession of CCTV footage from these hotels including the Oberoi hotel, where Waze stayed from 16 to 20 February.
“Waze took a fake name, one of which is S. Khamkar and had fake Aadhaar cards. He checked into the South Mumbai hotel on 16 February with a bag full of cash and stayed there till 20 February. We suspect that he checked into the hotel for settlement of accounts of some people including influential businessmen. He often dealt with a lot of dirty, tainted money,” a source told ThePrint.
The NIA is now in possession of the fake ID cards, including the Aadhaar card that was allegedly used during Waze’s stay at these hotels.
The findings come at a critical time when Mumbai’s former Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh, who was earlier supervising the investigation into the Ambani bomb scare case, accused state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of instructing Waze and other police officers to collect Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants.
Singh had made the claims within days of the Thackeray led-government transferring him to the state Home Guard, known to be a low-level posting. His allegations threaten to destabilise the three-party ruling coalition with the opposition BJP pushing for Deshmukh’s resignation.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, to whose party Deshmukh belongs, has asked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to conduct an independent inquiry in the matter.
Waze, who was part of the Ambani-SUV investigation, was arrested last week after 11 hours of questioning, in which the NIA confronted him with “technical evidence” it had gathered, sources said.
Waze is being investigated by the NIA in connection with the explosive-laden Scorpio found outside Antilia and by the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with Hiren’s death. On Sunday, Waze was remanded to NIA custody until 25 March for further questioning.
Soon after his arrest, Waze filed a Habeas Corpus petition in the Bombay High Court to challenge the arrest. In the petition, he claimed due procedure was not followed during the arrest. He also claimed that he was being made a “scapegoat” by “certain political powers”.
Waze is booked under sections 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy, 286 for negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance, 465 for forgery, 473 for making or possessing counterfeit seal and 506(2) for criminal intimidation under India Penal Code, and Section 4(a)(b)(I) of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.
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‘How does PI rank get so much money to splurge at hotels’
According to the NIA source, Waze had booked “multiple rooms at the hotel”.
“He used to book not just one but multiple rooms and businessmen used to pay for it. We accessed details of the account numbers through which these stays were booked and more names are expected to come out,” the source said.
“His stay at Oberoi was not the first time that he stayed at a five star. We have details of him checking into five star hotels under fake names on at least 50 occasions in the last three months,” the source said.
“How does a PI [police inspector] rank official get so much money to splurge at these hotel stays? Why book multiple rooms? Why would a policeman use fake ID cards? We have CCTV footage of Waze at the reception, at the lobby, the entrance to corroborate these booking, along with hotel records,” the source said.
‘Used multiple phones & cars, trying to mislead probe’
According to sources, Waze named senior officers and some political leaders during his questioning, however, no evidence was found to corroborate his statement.
The interrogation, sources said, is being recorded on video after Waze got an order for the same from the court concerned.
A second source in NIA told ThePrint that Waze even tried to mislead investigators multiple times.
“He would say one thing and then retract. He named few very senior officers in the Mumbai Police, but when his CDRs [call detail records] were checked, his claims could not be corroborated. He is saying a lot of things but many, we feel are just to mislead the probe,” the source said.
“Waze was using multiple phones at one time, was travelling in many cars. We have gathered evidence against him, with which we are now confronting him,” the source added.
(Edited by Manasa Mohan)
Also read: Mumbai Police, India’s Scotland Yard, caught between khaki pride and khadi shadow
If a just a Police Inspector was given all these perks, we can only imagine how corrupt and willing to do dirty work he was. Unless agencies like the NIA crack down even harder on these corrupt individuals, including politicians, GREED is going to spell the end of this country. Sure it’s been going on for ages, but that’s no excuse for us to become complacent with it . We should introduce constant sting operations and rigorous imprisonment for these filthy characters. Yes of course their families will suffer, but we are not the cause of it , they are .
The secular media is focused on the weakest person in the Maha Vasuli Aghadi.
Mr POWER the SECULAR LEADER under whom the underworld dons from a particular SECULAR VOTERS community were the most powerful is being shielded by SECULAR JOURNALISTS.
Mr POWER is well-known to keep a large no of SECULAR JOURNALISTS on his payrolls whose job is to ensure diversion of blame by fake propaganda and fake news narrative.
However in this era of social media this desperate attempts all go in vain.
Congress+Ncp+Shiva sena= Maha Vasool Aghadi
In short, Vaze had become a gangster in Khaki, used all the tricks used by crooks who are supposed to be on the wrong side of law. He could be charged under the Arms Act, UAPA and what else, I wonder. He is one example, where the System made a monstor out of him.