Special court in Mumbai rejects Sachin Waze’s plea to turn approver in PMLA case  

The special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act rejected the application and said that prima facie, the Enforcement Directorate has sufficient evidence against Sachin Waze that is sufficient to show his involvement and other accused in the case. 

A Mumbai Sessions Court on Wednesday (October 23) rejected dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze’s plea for turning approver and for pardon in a money laundering case in which former Maharashtra Home Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Anil Deshmukh is an accused.  

The copy of the detailed order was made available on Friday (October 25).  

The special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) rejected the application and said that prima facie, the Directorate of Enforcement[ED] has evidence against Mr. Waze that is sufficient to show involvement of him and the other accused in the case, hence, there is no need for Mr. Waze’s help in the case.  

Special judge A.U. Kadam said, “By filing an application of such nature, the applicant, Sachin Waze, admits that he was privy to the offence allegedly committed by the accused. In such a background, there is no need to seek evidence from the co-accused with a view to fastening liability against other offenders only. The record reflects that this is not the case where several offenders may escape due to lack of evidence. Thus, the application, being devoid of merits, deserves to be rejected.”  

The court further said that the objective of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) section 306 is to allow pardon in the cases where serious offences have been committed by several people and with the aid of the pardoned person’s evidence, the case may be brought to its logical conclusion. The basis of the tender of pardon is not to the extent of culpability of the pardoned accused, but the principle is to prevent the escape of the offenders from punishment in serious offences for lack of evidence. 

On October 22, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices M. S. Sonak and Jitendra Jain granted bail to Mr. Waze subject to conditions, “We clarify that his bail is only in the context of the special corruption case and there is no question of the petitioner seeking his release in any other case in which he is wanted. We direct the petitioner’s release on bail subject to such terms and conditions as shall be imposed by the special judge in criminal case 568/2022. Based on this order, special judge must impose necessary conditions for the petitioner’s release on bail.” 

In April 2022, Mr. Waze along with Mr. Deshmukh and two of his former aides Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde were arrested in a corruption case that was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In June 2022, Mr. Waze pleaded through his advocate Rounak Naik under Section 306 of the CrPC and alleged that the bribes he collected between December 2020 and March 2021 from restaurant and bar owners were all on the instructions of Mr. Deshmukh.

Granting him bail in the CBI case, the Bench allowed Mr. Waze to withdraw his petition that challenges the constitutionality of Section 306(4)(b) of the CrPC, which prevents approvers already in custody from obtaining bail.  

 Former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that the then-Home Minister Deshmukh had directed police personnel to collect ₹100 crore per month from restaurants and bars in Mumbai and Mr. Waze was allegedly collecting the money on Mr. Deshmukh’s behalf.  

Notably, Mr. Waze also faces charges in the Antilia fake bomb scare case [at the the residence of businessman Mukhesh Ambani] and the murder case of businessman Mansukh Hiren. The charges against Mr. Waze are lodged by the ED and the National Investigation Agency.   

Published - October 26, 2024 09:21 am IST