A day after Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiren’s wife Vimala accused encounter specialist Sachin Vaze of having “eliminated” her husband, the Maharashtra Government on Wednesday shunted him out of the Crime branch of the Mumbai police.
Under severe criticism from the deceased businessman’s wife and the belligerent Opposition BJP over Vaze’s alleged involvement in the death of Mansukh Hiren, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced in the State Legislative Council that he had ordered the transfer of the controversial police officer from the crime branch to some other department.
“We will definitely act against Vaze as per rules. But, as of now, we are shifting him out of the Mumbai police crime branch to some other department,” Deshmukh said, while making a statement in the Upper House of the State Legislature.
Amid the Opposition’s continued clamour for suspension and arrest of Vaze, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray refused to yield to BJP’s demand and slammed it for trying to create an impression of the controversial police officer was Osama bin Laden.
Talking to media persons after the budget session of the Maharashtra Legislature ended in the evening, the chief minister said: “We can't first punish someone and then investigate... The Opposition is trying to create an impression that Sachin Vaze is Osama Bin Laden”.
Dismissing the Opposition BJP’s allegation that Vaze had links with the Shiv Sena, Uddhav admitted that Vaze had joined Shiv Sena in 2008, but later did not renew his membership. “We will take stern action against the culprits behind Hiren’s death,” the chief minister said.
(Vaze – who had been suspended on March 3 2004 along with 14 other policemen for the alleged custodial death of December 2 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast suspect Khwaja Yunus -- subsequently resigned from the police force on November 30 2007 after requests for his reinstatement were rejected by the Maharashtra government. However, the state government revoked Vaze’s suspension and reinstated him in the Mumbai police on June 6, 2020 – after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown during which there was shortage of police staff)
On his part, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis hit out at the chief minister by saying: “We know Sachin Vaze is not Osama Bin Laden but the Chief Minister’s act seems to be Tughlaqi. One thing is clear that Sachin Vaze does not need an lawyer.. Uddhav Thackeray is conducting himself like Vaze’s Advocate. The Chief Minister is batting for Vaze.”
Fadnavis said that Hiren’s wife Vimala Hiran had said that Vaze knew that her husband and used the Scorpio for four months and suspected that the officer eliminated her husband.
Reading out the statement made to the police by Hirean’s wife Vimla Hiren, Fadnavis had said in the State Assembly on Tuesday: “Hiren’s wife has said that encounter-specialist Vaze has murdered her husband. The allegation is serious. We demand the suspension and arrest of Vaze”.
“In view of the circumstances leading to the recovery of her husband’s body, Hiren’s wife is pretty certain that her husband has been murdered. She has said in her statement that she has strong reason to believe that Vaze has murdered her husband,” Fadnavis had said. Hiren, a Thane-based businessman whose “stolen” SUV with 20 gelatin sticks was recovered by the police near Industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s skyscraper mansion “Antilia” in south Mumbai on February 25, hit the headlines after his body was found in mysterious circumstances on Friday afternoon. Hiren (48), who was into the car accessories business, had reportedly been missing from his Thane home since Thursday.
It may be recalled that the police had recovered 20 gelatin sticks and a letter were recovered from what was later described as Mahindra Scorpio that was found abandoned in the vicinity of Mukesh Ambani’s 27-storey residence “Antilia” on Carmichael Road in south Mumbai.