Mumbai Police's Sachin Vaze, an old friend of controversies

Vaze was an encounter specialist and eliminated gangsters belonging to Dawood Ibrahim's and Chhota Rajan's gangs

Controversies are not new to Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze.

The 49-year old is now with the Crime Intelligence Unit of the Crime Branch-CID of the Mumbai Police, now handling cases like the sensational TRP rigging scam, the Anvay Naik suicide case in which he arrested TV anchor-editor Arnab Goswami, sports car scam involving Dilip Chhabria and Bollywood-TV-entertainment industry’s casting couch racket.

Tech-savvy Vaze knows how to get the best of gadgets and gizmos. He has solved several cyber crime cases, financial frauds and one international credit card fraud case.

Vaze joined the police in 1990 as a sub-inspector and was initially posted in the Naxalite-infested Gadchiroli district and then in Thane.

When he entered Mumbai Police, he went on to become one of the “encounter specialists” and eliminated several gangsters including those belonging to Dawood Ibrahim's and Chhota Rajan's gangs.

Read | Man whose explosive-laden SUV was found near Ambani's home, found dead

On March 3, 2004, Sachin Vaze was suspended along with 14 other policemen on murder charges on the alleged custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, a suspect in the December 2, 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case. He subsequently resigned from the police on November 30, 2007, after requests for his reinstatement were rejected by the Maharashtra Government.

His suspension was revoked and he was reinstated to Mumbai police on 6 June 2020, during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown due to shortage of police staff.

After his reinstatement, Khawaja Yunus's mother Asiya Begum filed contempt pleas in the Bombay High Court against Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and Additional Director General of Police Amitabh Gupta. The latter was the Principal Secretary of the Home department and is now Pune Police chief.