A meeting took place between former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who was absconding until last week, and sacked assistant sub-inspector Sachin Waze, who is an undertrial prisoner and the main accused in the Antilia bomb scare case on Monday, 29 November.
After inquiring into the meeting, Mumbai Police sent a report to their Navi Mumbai counterparts on Tuesday, seeking action against the four cops and concluding that the cops were guilty of dereliction of duty, Hindustan Times reported.
Moreover, the four policemen, including a sub-inspector, who escorted Waze from Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai to the Old Secretariat Building Annex in Fort, have claimed that they couldn’t understand a single word between the former commissioner and undertrial Waze since they spoke in English, Indian Express reported.
The meeting had taken place in a room next to the Chandiwal Commission, which is probing Singh’s allegations against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
What the Police Report Says
Singh and Waze talked for an hour, with the four policemen present in the room, a person aware of the report was cited as saying by Hindustan Times.
The source was quoted as saying, “The policemen knew Waze faces serious charges. They should not have allowed anyone to speak to him without the permission of NIA court. This is serious dereliction of duty”.
Sub-Inspector (S-I) Bharat Patil, who had led the escort team on Monday, has reportedly told the police inquiry committee that an assistant to Justice Chandiwal (retd) had asked him to take Singh and Waze out of the room where the commission’s proceedings were underway.
As to the content of the conversation between them, an officer was quoted as saying, “Patil claims that he could not understand a word as Singh and Waze spoke in English”, Indian Express reported.
Deshmukh’s lawyer flagged the “secret meeting” between Singh and Waze, after which the judge instructed Waze to sit in the same room as the commission.
Singh has five extortion cases against him and was absconding until he surfaced last week. On Monday, the Chandiwal Commission in Mumbai cancelled a bailable warrant against him.
Earlier this year, Singh had accused Deshmukh of compelling police officers to collect “donations" from dance bars and hookah parlours in the city.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)