Career marred by controversy, Sachin Vaze’s job hangs in the balance

High-ranking city police officers hint that API Sachin Vaze will either be sidelined or suspended again due to the ongoing murder investigation

Nine months after returning to the police force, following a suspension of 16 years, the fate of Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze's job hangs in the balance. High-ranking city police officers hinted that he will either be sidelined or suspended again as his name has cropped up in ongoing investigation into the murder of Mansukh Hiran, owner of the explosives-laden car found outside Antilia last month.

Vaze, known as the encounter specialist, remained suspended for 16 years for his alleged role in the custodial death of Khwaja Yunus in 2003. He had submitted his resignation in 2008, but it wasn't accepted. He even joined the Shiv Sena briefly in 2007.

He was posted with the Mumbai police's Crime Branch in June last year after his reinstatement was approved by a review committee.

Despite being a low-ranking officer in the Mumbai police force, Vaze got high profile matters like Television Ratings Point scam, popular car designer Dilip Chhabaria sports car scam, arrest of TV news anchor Arnab Goswami in Anvay Naik suicide case, fake social media followers case. This did not go down well with many senior officers holding the ranks of deputy commissioner of police and additional commissioner of police, as well as junior officers.

Vaze joined the police force in 1990 and was posted in Naxal-affected Gadchiroli. He was later transferred to Thane police, and then to Mumbai police's Crime Branch where he got the tag of ‘encounter specialist'.

After 13 years in the force, he landed in a controversy and was suspended along with three other officers - Rajendra Tiwari, Rajaram Nikam and Sunil Desai - after Yunus died in police custody in 2003. Mumbai police had arrested Yunus in December 2002 as a suspect in the Ghatkopar blast.