Sachin Waze, arrested in Antilia & Hiran cases, dismissed from police

MUMBAI: Suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, arrested by the NIA in the case of an explosives-laden SUV found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house Antilia, and the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran, was on Tuesday dismissed from police service, an official said.
The order terminating Waze’s service was issued by Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale, said a spokesperson of Mumbai police. A 1990-batch officer of the Maharashtra cadre, Waze (49), also known as an “encounter cop”, was suspended after his arrest by the NIA in the SUV-cum-murder case on March 13.
Waze, now lodged in jail, was reinstated in the Mumbai police in June 2020 after being suspended for 16 years in a case related to alleged custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, an accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast of 2002.
Post-reinstatement, he was appointed the head of the Crime Intelligence Unit. As the CIU head, he was handling a slew of high-profile cases, including the fake TRP case, fake social media followers case, the DC car finance scam and the Ambani security scare case (in which he is now an accused), the official said.
The SUV with explosives was found near Ambani’s residence in south Mumbai on February 25. Hiran, a Thane-based businessman who was in possession of the SUV, was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5. Waze had allegedly played a key role in both the incidents, the official said.
The NIA has so far arrested nearly half a dozen people in connection with the SUV-cum-murder case, including Waze and API Riyazuddin Kazi.