MUMBAI: A local court on Monday, November 1, 2021, remanded dismissed API Sachin Waze to police custody till November 6 in connection with an extortion case registered against him in suburban Goregaon.
The city police's crime branch on Monday took Waze's custody in the case, based on the complaint of builder-cum-hotelier Bimal Agrawal, in which former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh is also an accused.
The dismissed cop was in judicial custody after his arrest in March by the NIA in the Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case.
The crime branch produced Waze before a metropolitan Magistrate's court here and sought his custody for ten days to conduct probe.
Special public prosecutor Shekhar Jagtap, appearing for the crime branch, told the court Waze used to indulge in extortion activities, and threaten businessmen with cases if they did not pay up.
Jagtap said there were 68 audio clips where Waze was speaking about money to be extorted for "number one".
"The number one being referred to is then Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. About 75 percent of what was collected from extortion was shared by Sachin Waze and Singh. Rest 25 percent used to be distributed among others...We need to find out the money trail. We have one victim now, there is a possibility of more victims in this extortion racket. We need to track them down. There are other transactions also which need to be scrutinized," Jagtap said, adding that police were still on the look out for Singh.
Waze's advocate, Sajal Yadav, however, argued the dismissed cop had already clarified to the Enforcement Directorate that by "number 1" he was referring to (former state home minister and NCP leader) Anil Deshmukh, and not Param Bir Singh.
Yadav pointed out to the court Waze was unwell as he has recently undergone surgery and, hence, the police should bear the same in mind while questioning him.
Waze, a 49-year-old assistant police inspector, was dismissed from service after his arrest in March this year in the case related to the recovery of an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's south Mumbai residence and the subsequent murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran.
The Mumbai Crime branch, probing the extortion case registered at Goregaon police station, had sought his custody from the special court, saying it was necessary for further probe into the offence.
The special court had, last week, permitted the crime branch to take Waze in their custody.
Four others - Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Alpesh Patel, Vinay Singh alias Babloo and Riyaz Bhati - have also been named as accused in the case.
As per the complaint by Agarwal, the accused extorted Rs 9 lakh from him for not conducting a raid on two bars and restaurants, which he ran in partnership, and also forced him to buy two smartphones worth around Rs 2.92 lakh for them.
The incident occurred between January 2020 and March 2021, police earlier said.
Accordingly, the case was filed under Indian Penal Code Sections 384 and 385 (both pertaining to extortion) 34 (common intention) against the six accused and a probe in the case is on, they had said.