NINE months after being re-inducted into the police force, Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze was suspended by Mumbai Police on Monday following his arrest in connection with the Ambani security scare.
Waze had been suspended in 2004 after he was arrested by the CID in connection with the death of Khwaja Yunus, an engineer from Parbhani who went missing after he was questioned by the Mumbai Crime Branch in connection with the 2002 blasts in Ghatkopar. He quit the police force in 2007.
Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Chaitanya S said, “API Sachin Waze has been placed under suspension by an order of Additional Commissioner of Police Special Branch.”
The suspension came after the NIA formally informed Mumbai Police that Waze had been arrested by them.
Waze was arrested on Saturday night and produced before the special NIA court on Sunday, and remanded in custody of the NIA.
An officer said that if a serving police officer is behind bars for more than 24 hours as per procedure he is suspended once the agency arresting him sends the information in writing to the department where the officer is posted. Accordingly, he was placed under suspension.
Meanwhile, the NIA on Monday questioned five cops from the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), which was headed by Waze. Among those questioned were two API-ranked officers, a constable, Waze’s orderly and the police driver of the Innova vehicle that was used by the CIU. As per NIA, this was the same vehicle that had been trailing the Scorpio car in which gelatin sticks had been kept outside the Mukesh Ambani residence on February 25.
The Innova had been kept at Mumbai Police headquarters in south Mumbai and sent to the Motor Vehicle unit of the police on March 11. The NIA procured footage of the Innova leaving the police headquarters on February 24, a day before it was found outside the Ambani residence. The police driver in his statement to NIA said he had parked the vehicle at the police headquarters and left, after which he was not aware of who drove it.
A team from NIA also went to the residence of Waze in connection with their investigation.
