Dismissed policeman Sachin Vaze has filed a default bail application before a special court in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) corruption case against him on the grounds that it has not filed the chargesheet against him.
While the CBI had arrested him and taken him in custody along with NCP leader Anil Deshmukh and his personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde, it had excluded naming him as an accused in the case in its chargesheet filed last week.
Only a day before the chargesheet was filed, the special court had permitted Vaze’s application to become a prosecution witness in the case. In a handwritten letter submitted through his lawyer Aarti Kalekar on Tuesday, Vaze said that no final report has been submitted against him within 60 days of his arrest, thereby entitling him for bail.
In his application to be made a prosecution witness in the case, Vaze had said that he had always cooperated in the probe and had also cited the voluntary statement he had made before a magistrate. The CBI had consented to make him a witness and told the court that he had revealed various incriminating facts to it and that it has no objection if the court permits his application to be made a prosecution witness.
As per the CBI’s case, Vaze had been instructed by Deshmukh to make illegal bribe collections from restaurants and bars in the city in exchange for being able to operate in relaxed timings during the pandemic-induced lockdown.
EOM
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