A cop and a bomb scare

On February 25, the Gamdevi police station received a call. A Scorpio had been found abandoned outside businessman Mukesh Ambani’s south Mumbai residence, Antilia, and its number plate was incorrect – the registration number actually belonged to a car in the billionaire’s security detail.

Soon Carmichael Street was filled with policemen. The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad discovered 20 sticks of gelatin – but no detonator or timer – in a bag in the SUV along with a crudely worded threatening note. As the case began to attract attention, Deshmukh, the then home minister, announced that assistant inspector Sachin Vaze who led the Crime Investigation Unit of the Mumbai crime branch would be leading the investigation.

Within days, however, the state’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS) joined the investigation. And then, on March 5, the body of Mansukh Hiran, a Thane businessman, washed up at a creek in Thane, which turned the investigation on its head. The SUV parked outside Antilia had belonged to Hiran, who had reported it stolen on February 18.

On March 9, former chief minister and leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised the matter in the Assembly. Holding Call Details Record in his hands, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader pointed out that Hiran and Sachin Vaze were closely associated and asked that the state probe Vaze’s involvement in Hiran’s death. He based his claims on the statement that Hiran’s wife had given to the ATS, which had taken over the probe into Hiran’s death. She had told them that she suspected Vaze might have had a role to play in her husband’s death.

Things happened quickly after this admission. Vaze was removed from the case, transferred out of the CIU, and called for questioning by the National Investigation Authority (NIA) which was handed over the investigation by the Union home ministry on March 8.

Vaze, who joined the police force in 1990 as a sub inspector, has a chequered past. He attained notoriety and fame as an encounter specialist in the 90s and 2000s. In 2004, he was suspended pending investigation for his alleged involvement in the custodial killing of purported terror suspect Khwaja Yunus. Three years later, he resigned and briefly joined the Shiv Sena before starting a business. In June 2020, Param Bir Singh reinstated him to make up for a shortfall of police personnel in the pandemic.

Singh, a 1988-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was appointed as Mumbai’s police commissioner on February 29, 2020.

On March 13, Vaze was arrested for masterminding the bomb scare. An NIA official told HT that Vaze did so to regain his “lost glory”. Vaze, who is currently in custody, denied all charges.

By mid-march, the lead investigator in the Antilia bomb scare case was now the prime accused in it. A state agency was also probing his role in Hiran’s murder. During its investigation, the NIA discovered police vehicles that were purportedly used in the commission of the crime.

Amid sharp attack by the Opposition, the Maharashtra government transferred Singh on March 17, who was deputed as Commandant, Maharashtra Home Guards while Hemant Nagrale took over as the city’s police commissioner. It was presented as a routine transfer, and not as a fallout to the Antilia and Hiran murder probes.

Yet, a day later, Deshmukh said at an event organised by a media channel: “The transfer of the Mumbai commissioner was to ensure that the ongoing probe by the National Investigation Agency and the Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) is not hampered.”

Singh’s reaction was swift. On March 20, he shot off a letter to the Governor of Maharashtra, the chief minister and senior bureaucrats, levelling serious allegations of corruption against Deshmukh.

Singh alleged that Deshmukh summoned Mumbai Police officers including the then deputy commissioner of police (enforcement) Raju Bhujbal, assistant commissioner of police Sanjay Patil (social service branch) and Vaze and gave them a target of ₹100 crore, which was to be collected each month from dance bars, hookah parlours and bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

Deshmukh strongly denied all charges levied against him. The NCP too stood behind him: party supremo Sharad Pawar held press conferences to clarify that the allegations were “incorrect” and the party would not seek his resignation.

Singh did not stop at the letter. He moved the Supreme Court on March 23, seeking an impartial probe by an independent agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Apex court, however, refused to entertain the plea and asked him to approach the Bombay HC. Others like advocate Jayashri Patil joined Singh in petitioning for a CBI probe.

On April 5, the HC ordered CBI to undertake a preliminary enquiry to ascertain if there was any substance in the allegations. In a strongly worded judgment, the court noted: “There can be no independent probe if it is given to the police where Deshmukh is the home minister. The interest of justice will be done if the director of CBI is allowed to conduct a preliminary inquiry. Such an inquiry be conducted in accordance with law and be concluded within 15 days. Once the preliminary inquiry is complete, it will be at the discretion of director CBI to decide on the further course of action.”

The same day Deshmukh resigned. He also moved the SC

against this order.