Cited in Param Bir charge sheet: Vaze, cops and bookies
MUMBAI: In its first charge sheet against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, 56, the Mumbai Crime Branch has cited a total of 62 witnesses, including 10 hoteliers, a dozen police personnel, two bookies, and a middleman who purportedly helped dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze collect money from cricket bookies.
Apart from alleging that Vaze also called meetings of cricket bookies in Mumbai with an intention to extort money from them, the 1,895-page charge attempts to prove that the “Number 1” mentioned by Vaze in his statements to the Enforcement Directorate was Pram Bir Singh, and not the then home minister Anil Deshmukh, as claimed by the controversial cop, currently under arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Antilia explosives scare case and the connected murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran.
HT has seen a copy of the charge sheet. There are four other cases against Singh that are being investigated by the Thane police, the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) and unit 11 of the Crime Branch. The charge sheets would have been filed after the investigations were completed — the stipulated period depends on the offences — but the
SC on December 6 directed the Maharashtra police to hold off on filing any further charge sheets against Singh, as he had “joined investigations”.
Apart from the senior IPS officer and Vaze, the charge sheet filed on December 3 by the Kandivali-based Unit 11 of the Crime Branch before the Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate Court names Sumit Singh and Alpesh Patel as accused. Besides the statements of the witnesses, the Crime Branch has also attached 69 audio clips of alleged conversations between Vaze, the complainant Bimal Agarwal, and cricket bookie Mannan Nayak.
The case in question is based on a complaint filed by Agarwal, who is from Goregaon in Mumbai’s northern suburbs. Originally registered at Goregaon police station, Agarwal has alleged in his complaint that Singh and Vaze extorted ₹9 lakh in cash and two Samsung Flip Fold mobile handsets worth ₹2.92 lakh from him, by threatening to raid two hotels that he ran in partnership.
The Crime Branch is yet to complete investigation against two other accused – Vinay Singh and Riyaz Bhati – and file charge sheets against them.
62 witnesses questioned
The Crime Branch has cited 62 witnesses to prove its case against the four accused – hoteliers and bar managers; police officers, including some of Vaze’s ex-colleagues at the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) which he once headed and members of the Crime Branch; two bookies; and a middleman who purportedly helped Vaze collect “protection money” from bookies in Mumbai.
One of the witnesses, Vaze’s ex-colleague at CIU, has allegedly revealed that after taking charge at CIU in June 2020, Vaze started collecting information from personnel about establishments in Mumbai engaged in illegal activities. “Vaze had been collecting information of bars and hotels in Mumbai even before the Covid-19 pandemic started in March 2020 (months before his reinstatement in service in June 2020),” the head constable said in his statement. “Immediately after the lockdown was relaxed and bars and hotels were allowed to reopen, Vaze started collecting money from these establishments,” he said in the charge sheet.
Apart from the complainant Bimal Agarwal, the Crime Branch has recorded statements of three of his employees in an attempt to prove that the accused collected the extortion money on behalf of Vaze and Singh.
Recovery from bars and restaurants
The Crime Branch has recorded the statements of 10 hoteliers to try and prove that Vaze called a meeting of bar owners in which he informed them that they would have to pay some fixed amount every months for the “smooth operation” of their respective establishments. Witnesses said that he fixed three categories of bars, based on their earnings, for the purpose of fixing the monthly sum — ₹1 lakh for the lowest category, ₹2 lakh per month for middle-rung bar, and ₹3 lakh per month for the third.
The charge sheet says that the dismissed API also warned these hoteliers of stern action if they failed to pay the amounts. Hoteliers Mahesh Shetty and Jaya Pujari said in their statements that Vaze held a meeting with a group of them in December 2020, in which he clearly told them that the then commissioner of police (Param Bir Singh) had instructed him to collect money from bars, restaurants, dance bars and hookah bars in the city. According to the charge sheet, some police officers, such as assistant commissioner Sanjay Patil, who headed the social service branch of the Mumbai Police at the time, and inspector Kedari Pawar, corroborated the allegations that the then police commissioner gave a target to Vaze to collect money to make up for the “lost time” during the Covid lockdown.
“During the course of the meeting with bar owners, Vaze had said that CP (commissioner of police) Param Bir Singh had given him target to collect ₹2 crore a day,” Sanjay Patil said in his statement in the charge sheet.
According to the documents, Vaze sent a message in December to several hoteliers in the city especially orchestra (live music) and dance bar owners, that they could have to pay ₹5 lakh monthly if they wanted to start a business or run it without any hassles from the police.
However, the charge sheet adds, Bharat Thakur, the president of hotel owners association, asked him to reduce the amount, after which Vaze told them that big establishments should pay ₹3 lakh every month, middle-rung hotels ₹2 lakh, and small hotels ₹1 lakh. It adds that Vaze gave the association a list of 240 hotels in the city, and threatened them that he could raid the premises of those who didn’t comply.
The Crime Branch, which recorded the statements of Jaya Pujari of Samudra Bar and Navratna Bar (both at Dahisar Checknaka), Sharadkumar Shetty of Meena Bar (Dahisar Checknaka) and Udaykumar Shetty of Nityanand Ladies Bar (Ghatkopar), said these witnesses said they paid money to Vaze. The hoteliers alleged that the money was collected for “Number 1” and they paid ₹40 lakh in December 2020, ₹1.34 crore in January 2021, and ₹1.31 crore in February 2021.
Vaze met cricket bookies
According to the charge sheet,
Mannan Nayak a stockbroker, told police that Vaze framed him in a case despite him not having any role in it. Later, he got a call from Bimal Agarwal, the complainant in the present case, who settled the matter for him after Nayak paid ₹35 lakh to Alpesh Patel, who called Vaze and told him that the work was done.
The charge sheet says that Vaze even called Narayan Mundada, who used to work as a bookie and had a good network in that circuit, to start collecting money from bookies. Mundada told Crime Branch sleuths that Vaze told him that if bookies paid, they would not have to flee the city during cricket matches, and could take bets comfortably. Mundana said Vaze told him the money was being collected for the Mumbai Police commissioner, Param Bir Singh, and that the 75% was to be given to him while the 25% would be shared among officers of the Crime Branch and the Social Service Branch.
‘Number 1’
The charge sheet cites several conversations in an attempt to prove that the “Number 1” mentioned by Vaze in his three statements to ED is Param Bir Singh, and not Anil Deshmukh.
Deshmukh resigned from his post as home minister on April 5 less than a month after Singh wrote a letter to the chief minister and other senior government officials, alleging that the former ran an extortion racket. The Bombay HC ordered a federal probe into these allegations, which prompted Deshmukh’s resignation on “moral grounds”. Both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate are conducting investigations.
According to an audio clip, allegedly of a conversation between Vaze and Agarwal in February 2021, the officer told the hotelier that the “Number 1” that he referred to was the then commissioner of police, at whose behest he was taking money from various bar owners and bookies.
Vaze said in his statements to ED that Deshmukh was the “Number 1”, and he was the one who had instructed him and some other Mumbai Police officers to collect ₹100 crore every month from Mumbai bar owners.
According to the charge sheet, assistant commissioner of police Sanjay Patil corroborated the claim that the “Number 1” mentioned by Vaze was Singh. The charge sheet added that around December last year, Singh gave Vaze a target of collecting ₹2 crore daily because six months were “lost” in the pandemic.
Mundada allegedly told the investigators that Vaze called him for a meeting in August 2020, and he told him that the entire collection from bookies should be given to only Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh. Similarly,
hoteliers Mahesh Shetty and Udaykumar Shetty, whom Vaze met in December 2020 and asked to collect money from 240 bar owners, told the sleuths that they had learnt that the money was collected was to be handed over to the “Number 1”, who was the Mumbai Police commissioner.
Use of code language
The audio clips suggest that Vaze used code words while talking on the phone about money collection. In one such conversation, Vaze talked about settling the matter against Nayak, a bookie framed in an unconnected case, and demanded amount of ₹2 crore for letting him go scot free. Vaze ostensibly told Agarwal that he wanted “2kg” and then went on to say that the matter can be only settled in Pauna Killo (750 grams in Marathi) or Aadha Killo (half kg), apparently meaning sums ₹75 lakh and ₹50 lakh.
As the conversation progressed, Vaze apparently said at least 35% will have to be paid. Agarwal then appeared to reply that he could not arrange ₹35 lakh, but can get 30%, and Vaze apparently said that he will fail if that happens. In another conversation, Vaze apparently told Bimal Agarwal that Mannan’s work would not happen. “Actually 2kg ka order tha” (the actual order was of 2kg), he apparently said. This, according to the charge sheet, meant that the demand was of ₹2 crore.