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DISMISSED MUMBAI police assistant inspector Sachin Waze has sought that the proceedings against him in the money-laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) be dropped, claiming that he is not a beneficiary of a single rupee out of the money collected from bar owners. Waze, who was the assistant police inspector, leading the Crime Intelligence Unit, was booked by the ED claiming that money was collected from bar owners at the behest of the then state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Waze’s co-accused in the case.
Waze, Deshmukh and two of his staffers were named as accused in two separate cases filed by the CBI and the ED, with allegations that bribes were collected in 2020-2021 from bars and restaurants by Waze on instructions given by the then minister. While Waze was granted pardon in the CBI case, he remains an accused in the ED case as his plea for grant of pardon was rejected in 2024. The trials in both the cases are yet to begin with all the accused on bail.
In a plea filed this week before the special court, Waze has claimed that firstly there is no sanction taken by the investigators, mandatory to prosecute public servants under the Criminal Procedure Code. Calling himself a ‘victim of circumstances’ and a ‘whistle-blower’, Waze is claiming that he had to succumb to the pressure of Deshmukh, and that the role attributed to him, that of collecting the money from the bar owners, does not constitute an offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“The applicant (Waze) has neither the intention nor knowledge of the further usage of the proceeds of crime nor participation in the money-laundering allegedly done by the accused Anil Deshmukh….It is the prosecution case that the applicant is not involved either in enjoying the proceeds of crime by its concealment or acquisition or use of projecting it as untainted property in any manner whatsoever,” the plea says.
Waze, who is on bail in the ED case, is in jail in another case filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly planting an explosive-laden car outside the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani and the subsequent murder of a Thane-based man, linked to the car.
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