Mumbai, Feb 17: The Igatpuri Judicial Magistrate First Class court has ordered the release of all accused in the alleged Rs 400-crore cash heist and kidnapping case, terming the crime’s central premise “fabricated” and dramatically altering the course of one of the region’s most high-profile investigations. The order follows a closure report filed under Section 189 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which allows a magistrate to release accused when no prima facie case is established.
Section 189 of the BNSS deals with cases where the investigating agency reports that there is insufficient evidence to proceed against an accused. In its report, the SIT concluded that neither the alleged Rs 400-crore heist nor the kidnapping of the complainant had taken place and that no material was found to substantiate the allegations. The report cleared all accused, including a hawala operator, a builder and a Government Railway Police officer, and others previously branded as suspects, allowing them to walk free. The court observed that no criminal role was established against them in connection with the alleged kidnapping or related charges.
The court directed the accused to execute personal bonds of Rs 25,000 each with one surety to secure their presence if required in future proceedings. The order is not a grant of bail but follows the court’s acceptance of the investigation report. The accused have also been directed to continue marking attendance at Ghoti Police Station in Nashik Rural as instructed by the investigating officer.
The court stated in its order that the complainant retains the right to file objections to the final report, leaving the door open for further legal challenge and review of the investigation’s findings.
However, the court order, far from closing the chapter, has instead blown the lid off a Pandora’s box, which has attracted allegations that senior police officers ran an unauthorised parallel investigation, illegally procured Call Detail Records (CDRs), made unauthorised inter-state trips to Ahmedabad, and allegedly extorted a hawala operator, all while keeping the Director General of Police (DGP) office completely in the dark about their freelance operation.
The complainant, Sandeep Patil, has disputed the SIT’s findings, alleging that the investigation was flawed. He claimed that crucial steps, including recovery of the gun allegedly used in the kidnapping, examination of threat videos from the builder’s residence, and analysis of key audio recordings, were deliberately bypassed.
SIT Chief Mirkhelkar stated that he encountered an audio clip only recently. He clarified that earlier audio material did not reference senior officials. Mirkhelkar said that the probe into potential departmental involvement is still ongoing. He asserted that he had no influence over senior officials, had not engaged in any wrongdoing, and was unaware of any connection between the builder, hawala operator and the officials mentioned in the clip. Mirkhelkar further said the SIT conducted a thorough technical investigation, including location data, CDRs, travel routes and sequence-of-events analysis, which revealed discrepancies between Patil’s account and verified evidence. The team concluded that no robbery or kidnapping occurred.
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According to the SIT’s findings, the entire saga was an elaborate hawala fraud targeting Savla. Accused persons including hawala operator Virat Gandhi, Syed Azhar and Machhidir Madavi allegedly conned Savla out of Rs 5 crore by spinning a tale of old demonetised currency worth Rs 400 crore needing conversion. The accused reportedly claimed they were exchanging the old currency for new notes worth Rs 120 crore and promised that, if Savla invested in a security deposit, it would yield triple returns. When Savla’s money vanished, he was told that a Nashik resident, Sandeep Patil alias Bhau Patil, had stolen the phantom container at Chorla Ghat on the Maharashtra-Goa-Karnataka border on October 16.
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