Mumbai, A special court in Mumbai on Tuesday rejected former policeman Sachin Waze’s plea to drop the money laundering case against him, saying he was involved in the “illegal act of demand collection and handling of unlawful money”.
A responsible policeman is expected to “act within the purview of law” and not indulge in illegal activities on the “instructions of home minister”, the court stated.
Waze, currently in jail, is accused of collecting money from bar owners across Mumbai and handing the amount to then-Home Minister of Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh, a co-accused in the 2021 case.
The dismissed Assistant Police Inspector had sought to drop proceedings against him in the money laundering case, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate , for want of jurisdiction and lack of mandatory sanction.
Special judge for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , Mahesh Jadhav, noted that allegations against Waze reflected the former cop “indulged into illegal activities while performing his police duty”.
The court emphasised that Waze, who has turned approver in a related corruption case being probed by the CBI, has himself admitted to having collected money from restaurant owners and handing it over to Deshmukh, who resigned from the Cabinet in 2021.
“Though he has submitted that he is not a beneficiary, whether he is beneficiary or not, is the question to be dealt with during the trial and not at this interim stage,” the court said.
The special judge asserted that “a responsible police officer is expected to act within the ambit of the law and not on the instruction of the home minister to do illegal activities”.
“In the case in hand, applicant is involved in the act of illegal demand, extortion collection and handling of unlawful money which are extremely outside of the scope of official duty,” the court observed.
The judge highlighted that the former policeman has committed the act “in abuse of authority” which can never be considered to have been done “in discharge of an official duty”.
Special judge Jadhav concluded that that prima facie a case is made out against the applicant for framing charges.
This court has jurisdiction to try and entertain the case, the judge said and ruled that the “application is not tenable in the eye of law”.
The ED’s case is that while serving as home minister, Deshmukh, through I Waze collected ₹4.70 crore from various bars and restaurants in Mumbai.
The money was then laundered and routed to the Nagpur-based Shri Sai Shikshan Sansthan, an educational trust controlled by the Deshmukh family, the ED has alleged.
The dismissed police officer, also a prime accused in the ‘Antilia’ bomb scare case lodged by the National Investigation Agency , is currently in judicial custody.
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