Vimla Hiren, wife of auto parts dealer Mansukh Hiren who died mysteriously last week, has alleged in her statement to the ATS that Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze might have killed her husband.
On Tuesday, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis also cited her statement in the Maharashtra Assembly and demanded that Vaze be arrested.
The police officer did not offer comment immediately on the allegations.
After a Scorpio with explosives was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house in south Mumbai on February 25, Hiren, a Thane resident, had claimed it had been stolen from his possession a week earlier. Hiren himself was found dead in Thane creek on March 5.
Vimla Hiren recorded her statement before the state Anti-Terrorism Squad, which is probing the case, on March 7.
According to the statement, the Scorpio, owned by Dr Peter Newton, was in the possession of the Hiren family for the past three years with Dr Newton's consent.
Her husband knew API Vaze who was a regular client of Mansukh's car decor business, she said.
In November 2020, he had given the Scorpio to Vaze to use, Vimla Hiren said, adding that the police officer returned it on February 5, 2021, through a driver. Her husband had then told her that the steering of the SUV was hard, she said.
On February 17 Mansukh left for Mumbai in the SUV for business-related trip, but as the steering got jammed, he left it after crossing the Mulund toll plaza and took a cab, she said.
The next day when he returned to the spot with one of his employees, it was missing, so he lodged a complaint of car theft at Vikhroli Police Station, she said.
On February 25, when the SUV with gelatin sticks was found near Ambani's house, her husband got a call from an ATS inspector, she said. Mansukh and their son Lucky then went to meet the officer near their building, she told the police.
The officer showed him a picture of the SUV and Hiren identified it. He later told her that he went with Sachin Vaze to the Mumbai police's crime branch the next morning for inquiry and returned around 10.30 pm with Vaze.
He showed her a copy of his recorded statement which also bore the name and signature of Vaze, Vimla told the ATS.
On March 2, Mansukh told her that he had gone to Mumbai with Vaze, and on his insistence filed a complaint addressed to the Chief Minister, Home Minister and police commissioners of Mumbai and Thane about harassment faced from the media and police, her statement said.
She asked him if he had been tortured and Mansukh denied, but said he was constantly getting calls.
On March 3 he told her that Vaze had asked him to get arrested in the case and assured that he (Vaze) will get him out on bail within 2-3 days, the statement claimed.
She advised him against doing any such thing and he seemed tensed, she told the ATS.
On March 4, her husband called his brother Vinod Hiren and said he needed a lawyer to apply for anticipatory bail as he feared arrest, Vimla said in the statement.
He returned home early the same day, and said he had to go out again as a police officer named Tawde wanted to meet him, she said.
Also read | Controversies and Mumbai Police's Sachin Vaze
He was going to Ghodbunder Road to consult the police who were their well-wishers, he assured her.
Mansukh left in an auto rickshaw and after 11 pm his phone became unreachable, so she called Vinod Hiren. Vinod called Vaze who advised him to wait till morning, she said.
Next day Vinod filed a missing person complaint and around 3.30 pm her son informed her that Mansukh's body has been found in the creek, she told the ATS.
Her husband was a good swimmer so he could not have drowned in the creek, she stated.
She suspected that her husband might have been killed by Sachin Vaze, Vimla Hiren said in the statement, demanding a thorough probe.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday, API Vaze said he would go through her allegations and only then respond.
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