Mansukh Hiran death case: API Sachin Vaze denied interim bail, court says prima facie evidence against him

A sessions court in Maharashtras Thane district has refused to grant interim bail to police officer Sachin Waze who has been facing heat in the death case of Mansukh Hiran noting that there was prima facie evidence and material against himAdditional sessions Judge Shailendra Tambe in the order that was made available on Saturday refused to grant interim bail to Waze and said his custodial interrogation was requiredThiscourtisnotagreedtogrant interim bail to the applicant Waze because there is prima facie evidence and material against the applicant Thecustodial interrogation of the applicant is necessary the order saidWaze had on Friday filed an application seeking pre arrest bail His lawyer A M Kalekar had sought the court to grant Waze interim protection from arrest on the ground that he was cooperating with the investigation Additional public prosecutor Vivek Kadu however opposed and argued that the probe in the case was at a crucial stageThe court while refusing interim bail noted that the charges in the case include section 302 murdersection 201 destruction of evidence and 120 b criminal conspiracy of the IPC which are serious offencesThis court has found that on February 27 and 28 2021 the deceased Mansukh Hiran was along with the applicant in Mumbai the court said It added that Hirans wife in her complaint has specifically taken Wazes nameThe informant Hirans wife has made direct allegations against the applicant in the FIR Hence this court has come to the conclusion that the investigation is at initial stage the court saidIt directed the investigating officer of the Anti Terrorism Squad ATS which is probing the case to file an affidavit in reply to the plea and posted it for hearing on March 19 In his plea Waze said the FIR registered by the ATS in connection with Hirans death has not named any personHe termed the FIR as baseless and without any motive and said it was a result of a witchhunt He further claimed that at the time when Hiran went missing and was allegedly killed he was at Dongri in south MumbaiWaze filed the plea under section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC in the Thane district sessions court Under this section a person can seek bail if he or she is apprehending arrest in a caseIn his plea Waze said the complaint lodged by Hirans wife is based on bald suspicion and is without any basis or motive It is trite law that a bald suspicion of the first informant regarding the commission of a crime cannot justify arrest of a citizen the plea saidWaze accused by Hirans wife of involvement in her husbands suspicious death was shunted out of the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday Wazes application further said that there is no incriminating material against him and that he has not even been named as accused in the caseApplicant Waze is a resident of Thane since long time Even if he was a customer and acquaintance of the deceased no motive can be attributed to the applicant from the bare reading of the FIR it said The ATS which is probing the case has recorded Wazes statement earlier this weekWaze in the plea said he was questioned extensively by senior officers of the ATS on March 8 during which he said that he was in south Mumbai at the relevant time when Hiran was allegedly killedOn March 4 entire day the applicant was in South Mumbai Thereafter during the intervening night between March 4 and 5 the applicant had been in Dongri area The said fact is duly corroborated from the contemporaneous records such as Station Diary Entries of Dongri Police Station the plea saidThere is a virtual witchhunt in news and social media casting speculative aspersion regarding the applicants involvement on the basis of halfbaked information without proper research and prejudging his guilt or innocence it addedWaze said he was cooperating with the investigation and hence should be protected from arrest Waze who was crime branchs Assistant Police Inspector has been transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Centre CFC unit of Mumbai policeMeanwhile in his new WhatsaApp status message put on Saturday morning Waze said the time to say goodbye to the world is coming closer3rd March 2004 Fellow officers from the CID arrested me in a false case That arrest inconclusive till date Sensing the history is going to repeat My fellow officers are on to falsely trap me Theres a slight difference in the scenario Then probably I had 17 years of hope patience life and service too Now I will have neither 17 years of further life nor service nor patience to live I think the time to say goodbye to the world is coming closer the status readOn February 25 a Scorpio was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambanis house in south Mumbai with explosives and a threat letter inside Hiran who was in possession of the SUV had claimed that it had been stolen a week earlier but the case got murky when he was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5Hirans wife had claimed that her husband had given the SUV to Waze in November which the officer returned in the first week of February During his questioning by the ATS Waze has denied using the SUV that was in possession of HiranThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever