75% Extortion Collection Was For Param Bir Singh, 25% For Sachin Waze – Says Mumbai Police Charge Sheet

Ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had a 75% share in the extortion amount collected from cricket bookies, while the remaining 25% was for dismissed cop Sachin Waze, according to the Mumbai Police charge sheet filed on Saturday. Based on statements of several witnesses the Mumbai police's crime branch further said that it had been established that Singh was referred to as "No.1" and that the two officers along with others were running an extortion racket from bar owners, hotel owners, and cricket bookies in the city. The charge sheet filed against Singh, Waze and two others contradicts the claims made by the Enforcement Directorate against former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, so far. According to Singh's letter to the CM dated March 20, 2021, Deshmukh had asked Waze and two other officers to illegally collect Rs 100 crore from bar owners every month for him. Moreover, Waze told the Enforcement Directorate that the extortion amount was collected for 'No. 1,' ie Anil Deshmukh. The NCP leader is currently in custody pursuant to these allegations. The charge sheet filed on Saturday is based on a complaint by builder-cum-hotelier Bimal Agarwal who submitted 69 recordings of WhatsApp calls with Waze and others to allege that nearly Rs 9 lakh, and two phones worth Rs. 2.92 lakh was extorted from him for not raiding two of his bars and restaurants, which he ran as a partnership. The extortion was between January 2020 and March 2021. The crime branch's investigation establishes that Waze conducted two meetings in August and December 2020 with bookies, and hotel and bar owners respectively. The first meeting was conducted in the Crime Branch's Unit XI office in Kandivali that has now placed Waze and others under arrest. One witness Manan Nayak said that he was being falsely implicated in a case registered against bookies at the property cell and would have to pay Rs. 2 crore for his freedom. Finally, with the intervention of Agarwal, a friend, he gave Rs 35 lakhs as extortion. "Sachin Waze told Agarwal that he is under pressure from CP Saheb, Param Singh and that he will have to arrest me…and I paid co-accused Alpesh Patel," Nayak has said. Statements of other policemen substantiate claims about the meeting. Another witness Narayan Mundada claimed that during the meeting in August, Waze had told him that from the entire collection amount from cricket bookies, 75% was for Param Bir Singh and 25% was for Waze. Waze and Param Bir Singh Were Close According to constable Raju Mane's statement, there were discussions that Waze and Singh were close. Therefore, Waze would often get his job done by intimidating and pressurizing people and most of the constables would fall in line. Another policeman said that Waze used constables to collect information on bars, hotels and illegal businesses in the city as soon as he was reinstated and posted as the head of the crime investigations unit (CIU). "The minute the lockdown relaxed, he (Waze) started collecting money from bars and hotels for No. 1 Saheb," the witness said. The witness later got to know that Waze would refer to the CP as "No. 1," he added. Another witness, Aniket Patil from BCB hotel said the co-accused / conspirators Sumit Singh, Vinay Singh, Riyaz Bhati had come to the hotel and introduced themselves as Sachin Waze and Param Bir Singh's men. Pursuant to threats to shut down the hotel, Patil said Rs. 3 lakh was paid to them as hafta for two months and Rs. 2 lakh was given as 'goodluck.' According to the charge sheet, statements of several witnesses have been recorded under section 164 of the CrPC and statements videographed as well. The accused are charge-sheeted under sections 384, 385, 388, 389, 201, 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

75% Extortion Collection Was For Param Bir Singh, 25% For Sachin Waze – Says Mumbai Police Charge Sheet

Sharmeen Hakim

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