Controversies are not something new to Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, one of the famed encounter specialists of the Mumbai Police who was involved in around 63 encounters.
On June 6, 2020, when he was reinstated after 17 years, he was attached to the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), a part of the elite Crime Branch-CID of Mumbai Police.
He was assigned several important cases like the sensational TRP rigging scam, the Anvay Naik suicide case and the death of her mother Kumud Naik, in which he arrested TV anchor-editor Arnab Goswami, sports car scam involving Dilip Chhabria and the Bollywood-TV-entertainment industry’s casting couch racket.
Besides, he also recently recorded the statement of Hrithik Roshan vis-à-vis the dispute that the actor had with Kangana Ranaut in 2016.
Tech-savvy Vaze, who knows how to get the best out of gadgets and gizmos, has solved several cyber crimes and financial frauds as well as an international credit card fraud.
The 1972-born Vaze, who hails from Kolhapur, joined the police in 1990 as a Sub-Inspector and was initially posted in the Naxalite-infested Gadchiroli district and then posted in Thane.
'Encounter specialist'
When he entered the Mumbai Police, he went on to become one of the “encounter specialist” and eliminated several gangsters including those of the Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan gangs.
On 3 March 2004, Sachin Vaze was suspended along with 14 other policemen on murder charges on the alleged custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, a suspect in the December 2, 2002, Ghatkopar bomb blast case. He subsequently resigned from the police on November 30, 2007.
Although requests for his reinstatement were rejected by the Maharashtra Government, he was taken back to Mumbai police on June 6, 2020 – during the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown period – due to a shortage of police staff.
After his reinstatement, Khawaja Yunus's mother Asiya Begum has filed contempt pleas in the Bombay High Court against Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and Additional Director General of Police Amitabh Gupta, who was the Principal Secretary of Home Department and now Pune Police chief.
While he was out of the Mumbai Police, between 2004-2017, in 2008 he had joined the Shiv Sena, however, did not renew his membership.
He had written two books – ‘The Scout: The Definitive Account of David Headley and the Mumbai Attacks’ co-authored with Shirish Thorat and ‘Sheena Bora: The Murder That Shook India’ presented by S Husain Zaidi.