Mumbai cop, who probed Ambani security scare case, was involved; arrested: NIA

Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze, 49, for the alleged conspiracy to plant an explosive-laden sports utility vehicle near the residence of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani on February 25, a top official of the federal probe agency said.

Vaze, an assistant police inspector, was placed under arrest minutes before Saturday midnight by an NIA team led by Inspector General (IG) Anil Shukla at the agency’s Mumbai office. Vaze had walked into the NIA office a little after 11 am and had been grilled for nearly 12 hours. The arrest was made at 11.50 pm.

Vaze was the lead investigator in the explosives case before it was transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Mumbai Police, and later the NIA. On Saturday, he tried to get anticipatory bail from a judge but did not succeed.

“Sachin Vaze is part of the group that planted the explosive laden Scorpio on Carmichael Road (near Antilia) on February 25,” a top NIA official told HT. The officer alleged that Sachin Vaze had confessed to his role in the entire episode but declined to share more details at this stage.

It is not clear if there was a conspiracy to hurt the Ambani family. The SUV found parked near the Ambani residence had 20 gelatin sticks and a threatening letter. There was, however, no other assembled Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or timer in the vehicle.

Mansukh Hiran, a 48-year-old auto parts dealer in Thane who claimed ownership of the abandoned vehicle – he told the police that the vehicle was stolen a week earlier – was found dead in a creek in Mumbai on March 5. Hiran’s wife Vimla blamed Sachin Vaze for the murder, claiming that her husband had given the SUV to the police officer months before it mysteriously turned up outside the Ambani residence.

Vaze’s arrest by the NIA could lead to some embarrassing moments for the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), particularly the Shiv Sena, which was accused by the opposition BJP of going soft on Vaze. Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who led his party’s offensive against the MVA government, had cited Vimla Hiran’s statement to demand that the police officer be suspended and arrested. But chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was unwilling to take action against the 49-year-old officer who had once quit the service and joined the Sena.

As the opposition amped up its attacks on the government, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar finally intervened on Wednesday and discussed the case with the chief minister. Thackeray agreed to move out Vaze who headed the crime intelligence unit of the crime branch of the Mumbai Police.

The chief minister underscored that the guilty will be punished but the opposition wants to straightaway hang Vaze.“A picture is created that Sachin Vaze is Osama Bin Laden….Death or suicide by anybody is unfortunate, so is the death of Hiran. A thorough probe will be conducted in the case,” Thackeray told reporters after the end of the state’s budget session where Vaze’s transfer was first announced.