It all started with an innocuous looking Scorpio that was parked by the roadside in Mumbai. Well, that is where all hell broke loose. Because, it was not a simple Scorpio.
It was this Scorpio with explosives parked outside Antilia. There are hundreds of places in Mumbai where Sachin Vaze could have parked the Scorpio. But he parked it outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence.
As Sherlock Holmes would ask ‘who benefits from the crime? And there lies a story. A story of deceit, blackmail and plain greed.
Soon, the story gets murkier. The Scorpio’s owner was found dead, a couple of days, pushed off a creek, with tissues stuffed into his mouth. After all, dead men, don’t tell tales.
It all seemed to be too good to be true, till the name of Sachin Vzae came up. The same Vaze who was investigating the so called TRP Scam and was involved in the arrest of Arnab Goswami. A man who could walk in to the office of any businessman and walk out with a few crores of cash. The Scorpio, soon led to more prized possessions including a Mercedes Benz. Tongues started wagging.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) soon got into the act and picked up Sachin Vaze. A lowly ranked Assistant Inspector of Police, Sachin Vaze was reinstated into service after a review against his suspension of 16 years for a fake encounter case. He joined Shiv Sena and considered close to the power centres in the party.
The reasons soon became clear as the skeletons came tumbling out of the cupboard. Parambir Singh who was shifted to a loopline posting from the high profile post of Mumbai Police Commissioner to Home Guards, opened a can of worms with a long letter written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. In the letter, Singh alleged that Sachin Vaze was running a collection racket to the tune of Rs 100 crores per month at the behest of Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
It is said that Vaze who was just an Assistant Inspector used to lord over senior officers because of political proximity, and that was not taken well by the seniors. They knew he would make one wrong move and then the knives would be out. Call it karma or whatever you want.
Anil Deshmukh also wanted to investigate why Sachin Tendulkar and Latha Mangeshkar tweeted in support of India. Then, claimed that he had actually asked his police to investigate BJP’s IT Cell. At this point did the Maharashtra Home Minister bite more than he could chew? Was the Home Minister confident that minions like Vaze could handle it?
Also imagine the havoc that police officers like Sachin Vaze could have played with life of PM Narendra Modi. Using their clout, they could have smuggled a car with RDX, park it along the PM’s route when in Mumbai. Outer layer of PM security is often local police force.
The NIA investigation now seems to be going after one lead after another. Surely, at one point, it will lead to politicians, especially those of NCP and eventually the Shiv Sena. What will happen to the MVA alliance? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
