Sachin Vaze’s explosive handwritten letter to the NIA has opened yet another pandora’s box making us believe that there is much more to the Antilia bomb scare case than what meets the common eye. Hours after, Antilia bomb scare case prime accused, Sachin Vaze, made explosive revelations accusing Anil Deshmukh and Anil Parab of extortion, Shiv Sena ministers have rushed to safeguard themselves and the Uddhav Thackeray government. On expected lines, the Shiv Sena loyalists have taken recourse to pin the blame on the central government to wriggle out of the impasse.
Anil Parab calls letter a ‘BJP conspiracy’ to defame Uddhav Thackeray govt
On April 7 (Wednesday) evening, Anil Parab held a press conference to refute the claims made by Sachin Vaze in his letter. The Maharashtra cabinet minister and Shiv Sena loyalist, had in his desperation to absolve himself from the accusations, went on to swear on his two daughters. He alleged that the opposition BJP had hatched a conspiracy to defame CM Uddhav Thackeray.
“I am Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sainik…I take an oath in his name, who I treat as my god and swear on my two daughters and say that these allegations are false,” Anil Parab told media, adding: “This is part of a strategy by the BJP and Vaze allegations are part of all this…To defame the CM, one needs to defame people around the CM, so this is a conspiracy by BJP.”
‘Names are fabricated’, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut says Sachin Vaze’s letter is ‘character assassination’
Now, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has also jumped onto the bandwagon. He has alleged that Sachin Waze’s letter against Maharashtra Ministers is ‘character assassination’.
“It is a political conspiracy. Those named in the letter are fabricated. This is character assassination. Those named in the letter will come clean,” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, news agency ANI quoted.
He added: “A new tactic has come to light wherein people who are in jail write letters. This is a political conspiracy I know Anil Parab, he can never indulge in such work. I can assure you, no Shiv Sainik can take a false oath in Bala Saheb Thackeray’s name.”
Interestingly, Raut’s today’s stand against Vaze is in contrast to his earlier stand in the Antilia bomb scare case, where he had praised the tainted cop as ‘honest’ and ‘capable’. We reported earlier, how when the case had come to the fore, Sanjay Raut had heaped praises for Mumbai Police, in particular, Sachin Vaze.
Sachin Vaze writes an explosive letter to the NIA
In the letter written by Sachin Vaze to the NIA, which has sent the Uddhav Thackeray government in a tizzy, the tainted cop claimed 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.
Besides naming Anil Deshmukh the letter also named Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena’s Anil Parab.
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.
He further claimed 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 claimed 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.
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.
The full text of the purported letter written by Sachin Vaze to the NIA can be read here.
