MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) told the special court on Saturday that it suspended the assistant police inspector Sachin waze had a joint account and locker with an accomplice in the Credit Bank for Development (DCB), Versova.
The NIA has alleged that Rs 26.5 lakh was in the account on March 8.
However, the incriminating material was removed from the locker on March 18, five days after Waze’s arrest on March 13, Assistant Attorney General Anil Singh said while seeking an extension of Waze’s custody on Saturday. Special Judge Prashant R Sitre sent Waze into the custody of the NIA until April 7.
Singh said custody of Waze was required to determine at whose request and why the account was operated upon after his arrest.
He also said the investigating agency wanted to find out why the items were removed from the locker and where they were kept.
Singh added that several of his accounts and lockers were under the scanner, adding that it was necessary to determine what transactions had taken place and who were among the conspirators who had been paid.
Waze, who has been in NIA custody for 22 days, denied having such an account. His counsel, lead counsel Aabad Ponda, urged the court to make the document on which the NIA relied available for filings.
“Is there a bank account opening form with my photo and my signature?” Ponda asked. When the NIA told the court that the relevant document could not be shown because there were other details of the investigations mentioned in it, Ponda responded: “You don’t have that joint account. If they have any letters to say that they have a joint account, then it is only secondary evidence, hearsay. ”
He also questioned how Waze could be held liable for someone operating the account while it was in the custody of the NIA.
Among other submissions made seeking custody of Waze for six days, Singh said a diary was made available to the NIA on April 1 by a South Mumbai club, which has a quoted amount in it.
“He (Waze) received a large amount and this was noted in the diary. Why would the owner of a club or the person who runs the club give such a large amount?
The prosecution also submitted that NIA had recovered a passport from an unknown person from the Waze home. He said the investigating agency needs to find the person’s identity, why their passport was at the Waze home and if they were related to the crimes.
The NIA also said that via IPDR (Internet Protocol Detail Record) data, on March 4, Waze was seen moving suspiciously towards the crime scene.
The prosecution said it had 120 TB of CCTV image data recovered from various locations connected to Waze. Singh told the court that downloading all the data itself would take between 5 and 6 days, after which it would be analyzed.
“The images will show where he had gone, how things were arranged … who he met,” he added.
Citing additional reasons, NIA said that through Waze’s disclosure statement, they had recovered various incriminating materials, such as a laptop, DVR, CPU, printer, and license plates from the Mithi River.
He said the items were in a “destructive state” and he needed to determine their content, the purpose they served and why they were destroyed.
Ponda denied that Waze had made a disclosure statement on March 28 and claimed that this recovery was planted.
“The recovery is based on your skill and will and nothing to do with me, for the simple reason that the Mithi River is 17.84 km long with a catchment of 7,295 hectares and is deep in the upper reaches and in the center of 70 meters. There is no doubt that one can easily find these items on the river. This has been completely imposed on me ”, Ponda presented.
The NIA also produced incriminating documents that were retrieved from the home search of co-defendant Vinayak Shinde.
Shinde is an agent convicted of the fake encounter of Chhota Rajan’s assistant Ram Lakhan Bhaiya in 2007.
The prosecution said Waze needed to address these.
The NIA further said that a Mercedes had been seized on April 2. So far, seven vehicles have been seized and statements from 50 witnesses have been recorded.
Ponda said the NIA had cited no reason to justify his custody for crimes under the strict Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
He said that after the 15-day period, the NIA could only request the remaining 15 days of custody under the law.
Unlike other provisions of the law, according to the UAPA, an investigating agency can request a total of 30 days of custody.
He also said that at best, the investigation looked like a case of disproportionate assets and not under terrorism-related offenses according to the UAPA.
However, the NIA said that both the recovery of explosives from a pickup truck found parked near an industrial Mukesh AmbaniThe South Mumbai residence on February 25 and the murder of Mansukh Hiran are linked.
The NIA suspects that a policeman scaled the wall of the police headquarters and went to the station
The NIA suspects that Sachin Waze did not use the main gate of the Mumbai police headquarters, but instead scaled a compound wall before heading to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on March 4.
Waze is suspected of taking a train to Thane, asking Mansukh Hiran to leave his flat and then turning him over to the killers, Ahmed Ali reports.
The wall is close to the social services branch, which is undergoing renovation.
To mislead investigators, Waze had also left his phone in his office at police headquarters.
Sources said no footage was captured of Waze leaving the headquarters on CCTV at the headquarters. After reaching Thane, he called Hiran and asked him to meet him at Ghodbunder Road.
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