Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said that controversial police officer Sachin Vaze will be removed from the Crime Branch and posted to some other department. Speaking in the Vidhan Sabha, Deshmukh said the move was taken so that an impartial investigation could be done in the Mansukh Hiren death case. Sachin Vaze’s name has been embroiled in the Mansukh Hiren death case, the owner of the car found outside Mukesh Ambani’s resident filled with explosives.
Sachin Vaze will be removed from the Crime Branch and posted in some other department. It is being done so that an impartial investigation can be conducted in this case (Mansukh Hiren death case): Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the Legislative Council
— ANI (@ANI) March 10, 2021
(file photo) pic.twitter.com/fgw00lO5wD
Devendra Fadnavis highlights Sachin Vaze’s involvement in the Antilia bomb scare case
The move to transfer Sachin Vaze to a different department was taken days after the former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis read a statement given by Vimla Hiren, the wife of Mansukh Hiren, in the Maharashtra assembly. In the statement, she had suspected that Mumbai Police Crime Branch officer and ‘encounter specialist’ Sachin Vaze had killed her husband.
She alleged that Sachin Vaze had used the Scorpio car for several months, from November 2020 till February 5. She also added that Vaze had told her husband to get arrested in the case, and had assured him that he will be bailed out in a few days. Vimla Hiren mentioned in her statement that she suspects that Sachin Vaze was involved in the murder of her husband.
Prior to this, Fadnavis had made startling revelations about the involvement of the officer in the Antilia Bomb scare case. he had alleged that the owner of the Scorpio car, which was used to plant gelatin sticks and a threat letter outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai, was in touch with a mobile phone number that is registered in the name of Sachin Vaze.
The car was owned by Mansukh Hiren, who had alleged that his car was stolen from Mulund-Airoli link road. Hiren had also filed a police complaint about the missing car. Hiren was found dead in a creek in Mumbai last week.
“The person who had lodged a missing complaint of the car that was found outside Ambani’s house had made some calls to a number and had received phone calls from that number. When investigated, the number was found to be registered to Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze. The first conversation between the two took place on June 8. The records show another call was made on July 24. Similarly, many such calls have taken place between the two over the last several months,” Fadnavis had said.
Fuelling the mystery further, Fadnavis further had added, “Sachin Vaze was the first police officer to reach the spot and then he was appointed as the Investigation Officer (IO). Three days ago, he was removed as the IO and I fail to understand why he was removed.” Fadnavis asked how Vaze reached the spot before the local police.
Fadnavis had alleged conspiracy behind the attack against Mukesh Ambani, alleging that it could not be a coincidence that the car was stolen from Thane, the route they followed was also from Thane and the IO investigating the case also lived in Thane.
Minutes after Fadnavis made shocking revelations in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha assembly, reports of Mansukh Hiren’s death surfaced in the media. Initially, Mumbai police had claimed that Mansukh Hiren had committed suicide by jumping into the Kalwa Creek. However, the postmortem report didn’t mention the suicide angle, and the cause of the death was reserved in the report.
