Made a scapegoat, Sachin Vaze tells judge; stays in NIA custody till April 3

Sachin Vaze, the Mumbai Police assistant inspector who is the prime accused in the Antilia explosives case, will remain in custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till April 3, a Mumbai court ordered on Thursday

Sachin Vaze, the Mumbai Police assistant inspector who is the prime accused in the Antilia explosives case, will remain in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till April 3, a Mumbai court ordered on Thursday.

Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

Vaze had asked the judge to reject the NIA’s request seeking his custody for 15 more days, insisting that he was innocent and had been framed. “I have been made a scapegoat in this entire incident and have nothing to do with the crime,” Vaze said.

Vaze, a controversial police officer who had resigned from service to join the Shiv Sena before being allowed to rejoin the force last year, was arrested on March 13 in connection with the security scare on February 25 after a green Scorpio was found parked outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s south Mumbai residence.

The vehicle contained a bag with 20 loose sticks of gelatin (with no detonator or timer) and a threat letter addressed to Ambani.

The NIA took over the probe into the explosives case on March 9. Vaze was arrested four days later. On Wednesday, the NIA has also invoked the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against him which allows the federal agency to seek his custody for a maximum of 30 days, not 14.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh who represented the NIA at Thursday’s hearing to decide on his custody said the NIA had seized 62 bullets from his house which he had not been able to account for. Also, Singh said Vaze was issued 30 bullets by his department but the NIA was able to find only five of them from his house.

Singh also told the judge that Vaze, during the time that he was tasked to investigate the discovery of explosives outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, had allegedly collected and destroyed CCTV footage of several places and used a fake identity card.

Further, the federal agency also said it has collected forensic evidence such as burnt clothes, traces and samples from the five cars seized by the agency. These have been sent for forensic analysis and DNA profiling.

Vaze refuted the NIA’s accusations in court.

“I was the investigating officer for one-and-a-half days and I did what was required to investigate the case... Not only me, all crime branch officers and Mumbai police did (what was required), Vaze told the court.

“But suddenly something changed and when I went to NIA on March 13, I was put under arrest by NIA officials,” Vaze claimed.