Kashish Jain
The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has pulled up the lawyers appearing for the Mumbai cop Sachin Waze in connection with a statement of Waze being leaked to media recently.
The Court was hearing the case of the explosive-laden SUV found outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence. In the concerning statement, Waze had made allegations against Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and Shiv Sena Minister Anil Parab where he accused them of demanding Waze to extort money to the tune of INR 100 crores from restaurants and Bars in Mumbai.
Special Public Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves (appearing for the NIA) has submitted that after directing Waze to submit his statement (following the appropriate procedure), the statement somehow got leaked to the media
Additional Sessions Judge PR Sitre has pulled the lawyers representing Waze for letting this happen. The Court has stated:
”I never said don’t file. I only said proper procedure under CrPC has to be followed. This ought not to have happened and this should not happen again. He is unaware, but you are his lawyer, you should know the procedure,”
Senior Advocate Abad Ponda (appearing on behalf of Waze) has submitted that he has no idea about how the letter was leaked to the media. He claims that he is completely against the same.
NIA had moved an application for judicial custody of Waze. The application was allowed by the Court leading to Waze being remanded to judicial custody.
Before the NIA’s application, the CBI had applied to access the NIA’s documents.
They particularly wanted the documents that belonged to the co-accused Vinayak Shinde and Sachin Waze. These documents allegedly contained details of the extortion money, which was essential to investigate the Pre-luminary Enquiry registered by the CBI.
Gonsalves submitted that if CBI would approach the investigating officers from NIA. then they would co-operate with CBI and “work out something to enable their investigation“.
The Court then allowed for CBI’s application, enabling them to approach the NIA. The Court also granted permission to the CBI to interrogate Waze on allegations against Deshmukh.
