Mumbai, Mar. March 10 : A day after Vimla M. Hiren, the widow of slain Thane businessman Mansukh Hiren pointed an accusing finger at Mumbai Crime Branch officer Sachin Vaze, the government has transferred him, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said here on Wednesday.
“Assistant Police Inspector (API) Vaze is currently serving with the Crime Branch…We have decided to remove him from there to another department,” Deshmukh said.
However, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Leader of Opposition (Council) Pravin Darekar said this was not enough and reiterated the demand to immediately suspend and arrest Vaze – attached to the elite Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Crime Branch.
The development came a day after Vimla Hiren’ statement to the Anti Terrorism Squad on March 7 said: “I suspect (API) Vaze must have murdered my husband” and demanded an investigation.”
Hiren’s SUV Scorpio, with 20 gelatin sticks and a purported typewritten threat note, was found abandoned near Antilia, the multi-storied residence of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
Announcing Vaze’s transfer, Deshmukh urged the Opposition that if they have any documents pertaining to the case, they can submit it to the government or the ATS, which is now probing the Hiren case.
On Tuesday, the Centre abruptly transferred the SUV case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), but the state ATS will probe the businessman’s death case.
The twin issues have been rocking the Maharashtra Legislature with Leader of Opposition (Assembly) reading out Vimla Hiren’s FIR statement in the lower house, leading to an uproar.
She said in her FIR reply to the ATS that since Nov. 2020, the SUV was given by her husband to API Vaze, who returned it on Feb. 5 as its steering wheel was getting jammed.
On Feb. 17, he had left his Thane home for Mumbai in the same Scorpio but the steering got jammed and he left it near the Mulund Toll Post and took off in a private taxi.
The following morning, Hiren and a mechanic returned to the spot but the SUV was missing and he lodged a complaint with Vikhroli Police Station on Feb. 18.
Barely a week later, the missing/stolen SUV shot into national headlines after it parked mysteriously near Antilia in the wee hours of Feb. 25 and recovered after around 12 hours.
The case became further compounded when 10 days later, Hiren’s body was fished out of the marshes in the Thane Creek near Mumbra on March 5.(IANS)
