By Venkatesh Raghavan
Parambir Singh drops a bombshell
Mumbai: Even as latest intelligence reports indicated that deposed API Sachin Vaze who is currently in the custody of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) is unlikely to cooperate with the investigations anytime even in the future, and it might lead to a weakening of any credible evidence the NIA will be able to present in court, a dramatic shift has taken place in the newsrooms with copies of the transcript from a letter penned by former Mumbai Commissioner Parambir Singh to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, levelling serious allegations against Maharashtra state home minister Anil Deshmukh going viral both on social media platforms including WhatsApp and electronic media channels.
Read Parambir Singh’s letter here.
The allegations specifically mentioned that police officers including Vaze were on several occasions called to Deshmukh’s official residence Dyaneshwar and received specific instructions about course of action to be taken on both, investigation matters as well as performing their bit in gathering revenues from hotels, bars and hookah parlours present in the city. The allegations are serious in nature as they imply that Home Minister Deshmukh was openly in favour of extortion to raise money to the tune of INR 40 to 50 crore that was expected to aggregate from the individual establishments.
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Home Minister Deshmukh responded on Twitter, saying, “The allegations were false and the former Mumbai top cop is trying to save his own skin. The tweet pertaining to the issue from Deshmukh stated, “The former Commissioner of Police, Parambir Singh has made false allegations in order to save himself as the involvement of Sachin Vaze in Mukesh Ambani and Mansukh Hiren’s case is becoming clearer from the investigation carried out so far and threads are leading to Singh as well.”
The turf war growing bitter seems to be conveniently timed to distract from the main issue, that of what led to the death of Mansukh Hirani and to what extent was Vaze to be blamed for the death. Whereas the NIA which is currently handling the investigation after the official handing over of the matter to the nodal agency by the Union Home Ministry, went ahead with trying to recreate the crime scene by making Vaze visit the spot outside Industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Antilia residence and walk along the stretch of the reported crime spot, the preliminary reports pouring in from the Intelligence officers stated, “This is not going to lead anywhere as Vaze is unlikely to blurt out names that might imply tumbling out of many skeletons from the cupboard.”
Meanwhile, it was confirmed early Saturday evening that the Mansukh Hiran murder case has been officially handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The NIA will be shortly re-registering the FIR besides taking over the case files including the post mortem reports that currently rest with the Mumbai police. The investigators came out with the fact that the deceased had made repeated written communication to both Thane and Mumbai police commissioners on the count that he was facing continuous harassment after his Scorpio was found containing explosives on the night of February 25. Hiran had also communicated with the Ministry of Home affairs. The statements coming to light at a crucial stage when the NIA is all set to take over complete charge on the investigations might throw light on the motive behind Sachin Vaze’s alleged role in the murder. “At this point of time, it’s unlikely that Vaze will cooperate with the investigating agency and this implies that they will be trying to extend the period of custodial interrogation repeatedly,” the Intelligence wing cited.
The court has granted permission for custodial interrogation to the NIA till March 25, 2020. Interestingly, Vaze is also the target of a parallel investigation that is sought by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). The ATS informed the Thane court that it wanted to unearth Vaze’s involvement in the murder of auto dealer Mansukh Hirani. The hearing for custodial interrogation by the ATS is slated for March 30. It further elaborated that the ATS having found discrepancies in the narrative given by Vaze on March 8 and facts unearthed by its investigation is seeking his custodial interrogation.
The ATS team also sought to ascertain the whereabouts of the Scorpio from the date it was reported stolen on February 17 till its surfacing outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Antilia residence. Besides, they expressed their intent to recover the personal belongings of Hiran, like gold ring, wrist watch and mobile.
In a bid to end the turf war that was running high between the city police and the nodal agency, a team of NIA officers also visited the Crime Branch headquarters at Crawford Market and had an audience with the newly appointed Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale. The team was headed by IGP Anil Shukla.
The investigations are still under progress as the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team from Pune approached the NIA’s Mumbai office to gather more forensic evidence, to continue with its minute examination. The Pune FSL unit wanted access to the Innova car that had accompanied the Scorpio on the night of February 25. Meanwhile, the Mumbai unit of the FSL has completed its examination of the Scorpio that was laden with explosives. Currently, the ATS having recorded the statements of doctors who had conducted the post mortem of Hiran’s body are pursuing further investigations that include the panchanama evidence gathered by the local Mumbra police.
