Dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze on Wednesday told an inquiry commission in Maharashtra that he used to receive instructions from former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh through “proper channel” on cases he was supervising.
Vaze is being-crossed examined before the commission probing corruption allegations against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.
In March this year, the Maharashtra government formed the one-member commission of retired Justice Kailash Uttamchand Chandiwal to probe Singh’s allegations against Deshmukh (71).
On Wednesday, Vaze was examined by Shekhar Jagtap, a lawyer representing Sanjeev Palande, personal secretary of then-home minister, Deshmukh. Palande, an additional collector-rank officer, is currently in judicial custody in a money laundering case pertaining to the corruption allegations against Deshmukh.
Singh, in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had claimed in and around mid-February and thereafter, Deshmukh had called Vaze to his official residence.
At that time, one or two staff members of the then-home minister, including his personal secretary (Palande), were also present, Singh had said.
Asked whether he knew Palande personally, Vaze replied in the negative and said he knew him only as an aide of Deshmukh.
To a query whether Palande ever made any demand or communicated anything related to money to him, Vaze responded in the negative.
In response to another query, “Vaze told the commission that personally he was investigating only one case.”
“But as a unit in charge I was supervising several cases,” he said.
On whether he was getting any instructions from Singh on the case he was supervising, Vaze said he used to get directions concerning cases he was supervising from his immediate bosses and superiors, including the then-police commissioner (Singh), through “proper channel”. Days after he was shunted out as Mumbai police commissioner and transferred to the Home Guards in March this year, Singh had claimed in the letter to the CM that Deshmukh used to ask police officers to collect money from restaurant and bar owners in the metropolis.
Deshmukh resigned from the post of state home minister in April this year. The NCP leader has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are separately probing the allegations made against Deshmukh related to corruption and money laundering.
The former minister is in judicial custody in the case related to alleged money laundering.
Vaze was dismissed from police service after his arrest in a case related to the recovery of an explosives-laden SUV from near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in south Mumbai in February year and the subsequent murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran, the owner of the vehicle.
