The Bombay high court scrutinized the financial capabilities of Sachin Waze, a dismissed Assistant police inspector
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday wondered aloud incredulously how dismissed Assistant police inspector Sachin Waze on a salary of less than Rs 1 lakh monthly, could use high-end luxury cars and questioned a month long stay at a south Mumbai five star hotel in Nariman Point which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said was booked in someone else’s name but the Aadhar card had his photo. The NIA had swiftly appealed against a September 29 bail granted by a special trial Judge C S Baviskar to Waze. The HC bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale had been assigned specially to hear the appeal after two recusals and stayed the bail on September 30.
HC Justice Kulkarni orally at the hearing said that when a crime is attributed to a person in police uniform, issues such as integrity and conduct are examined as well. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for NIA argued hard against the bail, which he said the special Trial Judge granted not in keeping with settled legal principles. What the trial court did was “exact opposite of the law,’’ that governs bail pleas under the anti-terror Act-UAPA said the NIA. The ASG said Waze used to drive cars such as a Mercedes and a BMW.
The court then asked how an officer of the rank of assistant police inspector could afford such vehicles.
Neither actual terror nor a statement of the intended victim is an ingredient of the offence, but an attempt or its likelihood are crucial components of the offence as well said ASG Singh. The NIAsaid the trial court had needlessly faulted the prosecution for not recording statements of the (Mukesh) Ambani family.