Mumbai: Don't take this post as glorification of Sachin Vaze, but he was once seen as one of the most audacious, intelligent, cunning and unpredictable cops in Mumbai Police. To be honest, Vaze has been beningn for me during my days as a cub reporter in the late 1990s.
He was one of the first police officers I got acquainted with when my career as a crime reporter commenced. Always wearing a plain formal shirt, jeans pant and soft spoken, Vaze's mannerism defied image of a police officer. He looked more of a banker or some corporate executive.
Vaze was part of Inspector Pradeep Sharma's high profile encounter squad and to do crime reporting in Mumbai you can't miss them from your network as these were the people who delivered what was newsworthy those days. How quickly you get news of police encounters was one of the parameters to gauge worth of crime reporters then. Police encounters used to happen almost every two or three days, over 100 encounters a year.
Commissioned in 1990 batch, one of Vaze's initial posting was with Thane Police. He became blue-eyed boy of then Thane Police chief Bhujangrao Mohite. Later when Mohite was transferred as Mumbai crime branch chief, he brought Vaze along. Vaze was then attached with Andheri office of Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) headed by Inspector Pradeep Sharma.
Vaze's induction in CIU led to a cold war within the unit. A conflict cropped up between Sub-inspector Daya Nayak & Vaze which regular crime reporters of that era could sense. Daya Nayak was then seen as the right hand of his boss Sharma. Sharma-Nayak duo got name and fame internationally. The "Pradeep Sharma-Daya Nayak Ki Jodi" was in news not only in Mumbai press but also they were featured in Time magazine & Shekhar Gupta did a walk the talk with them for NDTV.
Vaze and Nayak shared same office but Nayak had got a separate cabin making other officers of his rank jealous of him. Perhaps, Nayak was the only sub inspector rank officer who got privilege of having a cabin of his own. Vaze as an Assistant Police Inspector was not only one rank superior to Nayak but also felt that due to his professional abilities he was more deserving of power, privilege and fame that Nayak enjoyed.
Few years later there was a fallout between Sharma & Nayak. "Pradeep Sharma-Daya Nayak Ki Jodi" soon was getting replaced with "Pradeep Sharma-Sachin Vaze Ki Jodi".
Although, today media calls him "an encounter specialist" but he never did any encounter individually. The encounters attributed to him are actually those which Sharma's team did which he was part of. It would not be a hyperbole to say that Vaze was the most techno-savvy officer in Mumbai Police that time. He was perhaps the first officer in country to unearth a credit card skimming racket. Many other information-technology related crimes were detected by him. He devised ways of electronic surveillance on the underworld and other people unfriendly to them. It took no time for him to become a confidante of his boss.
Vaze not only became man Friday of his boss but also for many other superior officers in the force. Some of them were accused of multi-crore stamp paper scam named as Telgi scam. During conversations, the aggressive way in which Vaze defended them led him to be seen with mistrust by the very reporters who met him daily for stories. Many crime reporters especially the ones covering Telgi scam suspected that their calls were being intercepted, although, no evidence came on fore to substantiate their fear.
Vaze had a penchant for motorcycles and went for long distance bike rides to Himalayas. I remember an evening of 2003 when he bought a new Karizma motorcycle and enthusiastically offered to try my hands on it.
The downfall of Vaze began with Khwaja Yunus case. Yunus was a suspect in 2 December 2002 bomb blast in a BEST bus at Ghatkopar. His co-accused Mateen Basit alleged that Yunus might have died due to custodial torture. However, Vaze claimed that he was taking him to Aurangabad for investigations but the Gypsy in which he was transported met with an accident. Taking advantage of the situation Yunus escaped.
There was a huge uproar over disappearance of Yunus & matter reached the Bombay High Court. Maharashtra government transferred the case to the state CID. Soon Vaze and others were arrested and suspended. The dead or alive body of Yunus has never been traced since then.
After getting out on bail, Vaze wore several hats. He resigned from the police but his resignation wasn't accepted. Around 2008 he joined Shiv Sena & appeared on TV channels over political issues. Infact, he became a consultant for TV9 for sometime. Vaze had been a bibliophile and got busy reading and writing books. He authored a book named "Jinkun Harleli Ladhai" based on 26/11 Mumbai attacks. There were certain references from my book "Operation Black Tornado" which he had duly acknowledged with my name in his book. Last May, he was one of the initial buyers of my book "35 Days" and posted an online review also of it.
He developed an app named Laybhari which was on the lines of Whats App but it was more secure, claimed Vaze at Apps' launch event at Press Club. He appeared for live chats and gave sound bytes as an IT expert to TV channels.
Vaze's reinstatement in Mumbai Police after 16 years of suspension shocked many. But more shocking was his posting in crime branch and that too as the leading officer of Crime Intelligence Unit. Almost, all high profile cases handled by Mumbai Police went to him. I hear that there were whispers in the force for the importance he got. Vaze was overt in display of his powers.
History has repeated for Vaze after 16 years. Once again he is in trouble for matter in which somebody has suspiciously died. The agencies need to figure out his accomplices and the mastermind.
[Jitendra Dixit is Editor - West India, ABP News]
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