In another explosive development in the Antilia bomb scare case, prime accused Sachin Vaze has now written a letter to the NIA court accusing Anil Deshmukh and Anil Parab of extortion. In the letter, Vaze claims that he was told to pay former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh Rs 2 crores if he wants to be let back into the police force. It is pertinent to note that Vaze was dismissed from the police force after he was accused in the custodial death of one Khwaja Younis. Thereafter, he had joined the Shiv Sena.
In his handwritten letter, Sachin Vaze has claimed that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was against his reinstatement into Mumbai Police in 2020 and wanted it to revoked. It was to this that Deshmukh had told him to cough up Rs 2 crores. Sachin Vaze has also claimed that Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab (who belongs to Shiv Sena) had asked him to extort Rs 2 crore each from 50 contractors associated with the BMC.
From the letter, it seems evident that Sachin Vaze is trying to insinuate that he is being implicated in the Antilia bomb case as he allegedly refused to run extortion rackets for leaders from NCP and Shiv Sena.
On the first page of the letter, Sachin Vaze writes that he was placed under suspension in March 2004 and was duly reinstated in service on the 6th of June 2020.
Vaze says in his letter that after he was reinstated, there was clamour to put him on suspension again. Anil Deshmukh told him that Sharad Pawar was not on board with his reinstatement. At that time, he claims that Anil Deshmukh told him to pay him Rs 2 crores for the job. Since Vaze apparently did not have that money at the time, Deshmukh told him to pay him at a later date.
In the second page of the letter, Sachin Vaze claims that in the month of July/August 2020 he was called to the official bungalow of Anil Parab. During the meeting, Parab told Vaze to look into the SBUT inquiry which was in its preliminary stage and had asked Vaze to bring the trustees of SBUT to him for a ‘negotiation’ on the inquiry.
Shockingly, Vaze claims that Parab told him to initiate talk about extorting Rs 50 crores from SBUT to end the inquiry. Vaze claims that he had expressed his inability to do so since he did not know anyone at SBUT.
He further claims that in the month of January 2021, he was again called by Anil Parab to his official bungalow to look into the fraudulent contractors listed with BMC. He was then allegedly asked to collect at least Rs 2 crores from 50 such contractors. He claims that the said inquiry to extort these contractors is ongoing currently under an ‘anonymous complaint’.
In the letter, he further claims that again in the month of January 2021, Anil Deshmukh had called Sachin Vaze to his residence and told him that there are approximately 1650 bars and restaurants in the area. He was also told to then collect Rs 3 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh from each of these for Anil Deshmukh himself.
He further alleges that he informed Anil Deshmukh that there were only 200 bars in the area and not 1650 as the minister had said. He also informed that he would not be able to collect this money because it was “beyond his scope”. He was then informed to comply with these instructions or lose his job.
Sachin Vaze further says that it was during this meet that Anil Deshmukh also reminded him of the Rs 2 crore that he had to pay him for his reinstatement. He further claims that in November 2020, he was approached by an individual, Ghodawat, who was close to deputy CM Ajit Pawar. He informed Vaze about the illegal trade of tobacco in the state of Maharashtra and insisted that Sachin Vaze should collect at least Rs 100 crores from the illegal gutkha sellers. Apparently, Sachin Vaze, who is accused of planting a bomb in front of the residence of Mukesh Ambani, said that he does not indulge in illegal activity. At that time, he was threatened that if he does not, he will lose his job.
From the 1st of January 2021, he says that he started collecting the money from Gutkha sellers but, he also initiated action against the factories. At this point, he was again contacted and the individual close to Ajit Pawar expressed his displeasure at him taking action against the factories. He was then asked to take the cases back and he evidently “categorically denied”.
Earlier today, there was a new revelation in the case as well. A police report was accessed by Republic TV reveals that ex-API Sachin Vaze was made in charge of the Crime Intelligence Unit through a verbal order by ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. The report also suggests that Sachin Vaze was asked to report solely to former Mumbai CP Param Bir Singh.
