Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, who was arrested late on Saturday night by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after questioning him for 12 hours over the recovery of an explosive-laden vehicle near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, has been remanded to NIA custody till March 25.
Vaze was produced before the court at around 3 PM. He had been arrested after the NIA had called him for questioning at 11 am on Saturday.
The agency has booked him in the bomb scare case for criminal conspiracy, negligent conduct with respect for explosive substance, forgery and criminal intimidation among another sections.
Before his arrest on Saturday, Vaze had posted a status on his Whatsapp in which he referred to his being framed by the CID in a case in 2004. He was referring to the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case which had led to his suspension. He was reinstated only last year. He said in the status message, “My fellow officers are on to falsely trap me."
Vaze’s anticipatory bail application was on Friday rejected before a Thane court in the Mansukh Hiren murder case in which the ATS has registered offence against unknown persons. It was Hiren that the Scorpio in which gelatin sticks were found, was tracked to. While rejecting his plea, the court had said that it found that on 27 and 28 February the deceased was along with Vaze at Mumbai.
Later, Hiren’s body was found and the offence was registered against unknown persons. It considered the statement of Hiren’s wife to the police in which she said that Vaze and Hiren were regularly in contact. The court noted that she had directly made allegations against him in her complaint.
It said then that investigation is at a primary stage by the ATS and the offence of murder being serious and since accused are unknown thorough investigation is necessary by ATS.