NCP rubbishes BJP's CBI probe demand; claims 'Sachin Vaze wrote letter under duress'

On Thursday, Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil rubbished BJP's demand for a CBI investigation against Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and Transport Minister Anil Parab. Speaking to reporters, Patil expressed shock at the fact that the saffron party's state executive had passed such a resolution on the handwritten letter of dismissed Mumbai cop Sachin Vaze. An accused in the Antilia bomb scare case and the death of businessman Mansukh Hiren, Vaze is currently in judicial custody. Slamming BJP for its purported "ideological bankruptcy", he rejected the allegations claiming that the letter was written under duress. 

"An incarcerated officer writes a letter and makes unsubstantial allegations. If BJP is passing a solution on the basis of an officer who is accused of a serious crime like planting gelatin sticks, it shows the ideological bankruptcy of BJP. These letters by an officer who is facing serious allegations and who is being probed by NIA have been written under coercion. The allegations in the letter are blatantly false," Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil stated. 

Sachin Vaze's sensational allegations

On April 7, BJP shared a copy of a handwritten statement which Vaze's lawyer tried to submit in the Special NIA court. However, Additional Sessions Judge PR Sitre refused to take such a document on record and directed the suspended cop to give a statement under Section 164 of the CrPC. The statement has made a flurry of sensational allegations. For instance, Vaze allegedly accused ex-Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of asking him to pay Rs.2 crore so that he can convince NCP supremo Sharad Pawar against placing him under suspension once again.

Moreover, he claimed that Darshan Ghodawat, a self-espoused close aide of Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar told him to collect Rs.100 crore from illegal gutka sellers or lose the CIU posting. The dismissed Assistant Police Inspector added that he refused to comply with Ghodawat's instruction to ask the illegal gutka manufacturers to either meet him or directly Ajit Pawar. Vaze also alleged that Anil Parab had insisted on him extorting Rs.50 crore from the trustees of the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust in July/August 2020 to close the inquiry against the latter.

Additionally, he recalled an incident from January 2021 where Parab allegedly instructed him to collect at least Rs.2 crore each from 50 "fraudulent" contractors listed with the BMC. Reiterating ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh's charges against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Vaze claimed that he had refused to illegally collect any amount. According to the dismissed API, he disclosed this to Singh and expressed an apprehension that he would be embroiled in a "false controversy".