ED to withdraw nod to Waze to turn approver in Deshmukh case

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided to withdraw its nod given to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze for becoming an approver in a money laundering case against former home minister Anil Deshmukh.
There is no clarity as to what prompted ED to change its stand. ED can reverse its opinion if the approver does not comply with conditions of pardon such as concealing anything essential or giving false evidence. The approver can then be tried for the offence in respect of which pardon was granted or any other offence the approver appears to have been guilty of in connection with the same case, and also for giving false evidence.
This also means that Waze will be treated as one of the key accused along with Deshmukh. Last June, ED had submitted its reply before the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, giving its nod to Waze's plea to turn approver in the case. Subsequently, CBI had also allowed Waze to turn approver in a related corruption case they were investigating against Deshmukh and he was awarded "grant of pardon" with certain conditions, including that he will make a full and true disclosure of the whole circumstances related to the offence.
In November, the special court granted him bail in the money laundering case after he cited new circumstances that the main accused, Anil Deshmukh, had got bail in the case and his application to become approver had been consented to by ED. Waze is a chargesheeted accused in the case. However, he continues to remain in jail since his arrest by NIA in the 2021 Antilia bomb scare case and the related case of the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.
The credibility of Waze turning approver in the money laundering case against Deshmukh received a setback when the Bombay high court, while granting Deshmukh bail in last October, had raised doubts over the "credibility" of Waze's statements. The high court had said it was "unsafe" to rely on Waze's statement that he had collected money from among 1,750 orchestra bars in Mumbai and delivered it to Kundan Shinde (co-accused and Deshmukh's personal assistant) at the instructions of Deshmukh.
In April 2021, CBI had registered a corruption FIR against Deshmukh on the high court's direction where it was alleged that he had asked Waze, then posted in the crime branch, to illegally collect Rs 100 crore every month from the city's bars and similar establishments for him. Based on the CBI FIR, the ED too registered a money laundering case against Deshmukh and Waze. In its chargesheet, the ED claimed Waze had collected Rs 4.3 crore from bar owners and allegedly on Deshmukh's instruction it was handed over to his personal staff.