Mumbai: NIA takes Sachin Waze to Andheri to probe some crucial links

National Investigation Agency officers taking Sachin Waze to sessions court on April 3

Even as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) makes all efforts to piece together the evidence in the Antilia bomb threat case and murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran, on Saturday a team of officers took suspended ASI Sachin Waze to a location in Andheri as part of the probe.

Waze walks on the road outside Antilia as the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and NIA recreate the scene that happened on February 25. File pics

According to sources, before planning the murder of Hiran, Waze along with accused Vinayak Shinde had gone to meet someone in Andheri. The agency suspects that the person Waze met had some crucial links with both the cases. However, the NIA is tight- lipped about the role of others in the case. "The investigation is going in the right direction and multiple teams are working on it," said an
NIA officer.

Sources in the agency have also confirmed that the last location of the SIM card which was used to make a WhatsApp call to Hiran on March 4, a day before he was killed, was somewhere in Andheri. Meanwhile, the investigation has also led the NIA to documents that show some payments, suspected to be bribe money, being made to officers in the Mumbai Police and the administration, officers said.

They said the NIA was scrutinising the documents unearthed during a raid on Thursday on a club at Girgaum in South Mumbai to probe the role of Waze. One of the documents shows the name of the office as well as officers by designation and there was an amount mentioned against their names, and the same had been tabulated month-wise, the officers said.

They suspect that the amounts mentioned against office and officers could be the bribe money paid every month. Before sharing further details, the NIA is likely to seek an explanation from the club owner and others about the documents.

The officers said that if needed the documents would be shared with the Income Tax department or CBI authorities for further probe as the NIA was mandated to probe anti-terror cases only. They said the club was frequented by Waze, who had even got Naresh Gor and co-accused Vinayak Shinde employed there.

(With inputs from agencies)