Mumbai : In a sensational development in the Antilia scandal, The Sunday Guardian has accessed CCTV footage from 4 March in which suspended Mumbai Police Assistant Police Inspector (API) Sachin Vaze is seen near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CST), it’s the same day that businessman Mansukh Hiren was found murdered. In a late-night development in the probe into the Hiren murder and the Antilia bomb scare probe on Monday and the early hours of Tuesday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had taken Vaze to CST railway station and Kalwa railway station and recreated the crime scene.
As per sources, Vaze exited the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) office at 6.30 pm on 4 March after which he reportedly scaled the walls of the Mumbai Police headquarters to avoid the CCTV cameras and exited through the Social Service branch’s canteen side and reached the CST station at around 7 pm. As per sources, Vaze, in connection with whom seven cars and one bike have been seized, then proceeded to take a train to Thane and reached the destination at 8.10 pm after which he made a phone call via a SIM card provided to him by bookie Naresh, who is currently in NIA custody. As per reports, Vaze, accompanied by constable Vinayak Shinde, then met businessman Hiren following which he is said to have reached Byculla at 9.20 pm and called his aide Riyaz Kazi to ask him to bring his mobile phone to the Dongri Police Station. As per sources, his attempt to call Kazi to Dongri Police Station was an alleged attempt made by the now-suspended API to hoodwink investigation agencies by creating an alibi for himself. As per sources, other police officials were also involved in the act besides the bookies and Vaze’s associates.
The NIA is investigating the Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case and Hiren’s death, the purported owner of the explosives-laden SUV that was found outside the residence of the industrialist.