How Waze coerced people and plotted his extortion racket

Forensic experts inspect a Mercedes that Waze used before his arrest

As it delved deep into the Ambani bomb scare case and the murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran, the NIA uncovered that sacked cop Sachin Waze had used a single mother to launder extortion money. The woman, now a star witness in the case, has Rs 1.8 crore in her bank account, the source of which was not known to her, says the charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency.

The charge sheet filed by NIA has revealed that dismissed cop Sachin Waze used different people to plot the Mansukh Hiran murder and Antilia bomb scare cases. The agency found that Waze used hoteliers to extort money, a woman escort to launder it, a businessman to book a hotel and finally an ex-cop to orchestrate a murder. He used his own officers in the entire controversy, later brought in his mentor Pradeep Sharma to eliminate Hiran as he feared the Thane businessman would spill the beans.

According to the charge sheet, Waze used to collect a huge amount of money through extortion and he ploughed a part of it to commit the crimes. Multiple agencies have also found that Waze was accused of extorting money when he handled high-profile matters, including the Dilip Chhbaria fake registration and TRP case.

Dismissed cop Sachin Waze at Mumbai CP's office in March. File pics

Waze also extracted money from people who faced criminal cases. As per the charge sheet, a jeweller whose case was being investigated by the Crime Intelligence Unit, which was headed by Waze, was asked by the now-sacked cop to book a room in a five-star hotel in Mumbai. The businessman first made arrangements at Taj Hotel at Cuffe Parade, but later Waze said he would want to go to Taj Hotel in Colaba, Oberoi and Trident. Later, the businessman through a travel agency booked a room at Oberoi for 100 nights on a dubious identity by paying more than Rs 13 lakh in cash. The NIA charge sheet says that Waze used the hotel room to plan and execute the Antilia plot to gain his lost glory and make money through the top industrialist, high-profile businessmen and influential families. However, the charge sheet is silent on how Waze planned to extort money by planting explosives near Antilia.

Also Read: NIA is shielding Param Bir Singh in Sachin Waze case, alleges NCP

Single mother as a pawn

The 10,000-page charge sheet says that Waze parked his ill-gotten money through a single mother, who is now a witness in the case. The 36-year-old woman, the daughter of a mill worker, grew up in a north Mumbai slum. She married her neighbour when she was Std XII and shifted to Bhayander. She started working as a tele-marketing executive in a company engaged by a private bank. For 5 years, she worked in 3 companies till she became the mother of a male child.

Meanwhile, her husband too left the job and started a hotel which ran into losses. Having no money to survive, her husband sent her as a female escort to a client when her son was just 2 months old. After working as an escort for 5 years, the woman separated from her husband and started living with her son at Mira Road.

The woman met Waze in 2011. "During our first meeting he told me that he is from Pune and his name is Sanjay or Sunil. But after a couple of days he again met me and told me his real name is Sachin and he is a businessman. Thereafter we met regularly and within 2-3 months he revealed his real identity and background," reads her statement, which is a part of the NIA charge sheet in the Ambani bomb scare case and Hiran murder.

Waze is taken to court on April 3. File/Bipin Kokate

In 2016, Waze asked her to register two companies - one of automation and the other related to tours and travels. In 2017, he asked the woman to become a director of an automobile company and told her it could be her permanent source of income. The woman invested Rs 17 lakh, but other partners didn't pool in money and the business didn't make profits. In 2019, Waze helped her revive the business but by the time everything was put in place by 2020, the COVID-induced lockdown was imposed and the revival plan failed to take off. After Waze was reinstated in Mumbai police, he asked his female friend to stop escort work and started paying her Rs 50,000 every month from August 2020. He then decided to use her in his ‘extortion racket'.

As per the charge sheet, Waze called his friend on February 16 to his workplace in the police commissioner's office and gave her a blue backpack full of cash. He asked her to count the notes and confirm that the amount was Rs 40 lakh. He also asked her to keep an eye on notes containing number 786 and keep them aside for him. She followed his instructions and returned the money to Waze on February 18 at Oberoi Hotel. As she was about to leave, Waze gave another bag having Rs 36 lakh cash for counting and sorting the same way. She returned the money after two days.

During the investigation, the NIA also found about Rs 30 lakh were deposited in the accounts of the woman's companies between October 3, 2020, and October 6, 2020. When the single mother was called for questioning by the NIA, she had R26 lakh in her bank accounts and had no clue about its source. She told the NIA that it was an arrangement by Waze to run an automation business.

The explosives-laden SUV outside Mukesh Ambani's home in February

The NIA has also uncovered that Rs 1.5 crore were deposited in the bank account belonging to one of the companies between March 6 and March 10 of this year. However, the source or the depositors of the money were not known to the woman.

Demand of Rs 5-crore a month

While Waze used a woman to launder the ill-gotten money, he had created a steady source of income through hotels and bars in the city. According to a hotelier's statement recorded by the NIA, a meeting of 10-11 restaurateurs and bar owners had taken place in Waze's office in December 2020. During the meeting, Waze allegedly called an ACP-rank officer to his cabin demanded, in his presence, Rs 5 crore per month from hotel owners from zone 1 to 12 area of Mumbai promising that the police won't raid any hotel/bar/performance bar. But the hoteliers showed unwillingness on the grounds that the amount was exorbitant and they had suffered heavily due to COVID.

Waze's rate card

Finally, Waze fixed the monthly collection target of Rs 1 lakh for small hotels/bars, Rs 2 lakh for big premises and Rs 3 lakh for those doing brisk business. He gave the responsibility of collection from zone 1 to 7 to one hotelier, while three others were given the same duty for zones 8 to 12 having 91 hotels. After the meeting, Waze asked for R50 lakh as the ‘goodluck' amount, but the hoteliers managed to pay Rs 40 lakh after 3 days in two instalments of Rs 27 lakh and Rs 13 lakh. Waze used to call the hoteliers for updates on the collection of the money.

If somebody didn't give money on time, Waze used to raid the said hotel/bar. In January 2021, the hoteliers paid Rs 80-Rs 86 lakh to Waze in his cabin on the 4th floor of the building housing the CP's office. A week later, another instalment of Rs 40 lakh rupees was handed over to Waze along with a handwritten and typed list of hotels. On February 12, an amount of Rs 89 lakh was paid to Waze, while a second tranche of Rs 38-Rs 40 lakh with a list was handed over on February 17-18. Another Rs 1 lakh, collected from a hotel in Dadar, was paid separately in the last week of February.

Design to eliminate Hiran

Following intense media scrutiny on the Antilia bomb scare episode, Hiran was a worried man. While Waze pressured Hiran to surrender and assured to bail him out as soon as possible, the businessman did not agree to his demands. Fearing he would turn out to be a weak link and blow his cover, Waze drafted his mentor and ex-cop Pradeep Sharma and paid a huge sum to eliminate Hiran.

NIA said the money used in this conspiracy originated from extortion of hoteliers and bars. The NIA during the remand hearing has said that the killers were laid around Rs 45 lakh to kill Hiran. The money was given by Waze to Sharma in his Andheri office in a black rexine bag. However, the NIA has not revealed the exact amount in its charge sheet.

The alleged killers were hired by Sharma and one of them was Santosh Shelar who managed everything on Sharma's behalf and killed Mansukh. Later, Sharma gave them more money to travel to Delhi, Nepal and Dubai to avoid arrest.

Rs 76L
Cash Waze gave to the woman in Feb for sorting and counting