DISMISSED Mumbai Police assistant inspector Sachin Waze on Wednesday told the Chandiwal Commission in an affidavit that former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had taken money from him and also asked him to collect money from bars and restaurants. But the affidavit, which was part of an application for retracting his earlier statements, was rejected by the Commission.
Waze had earlier before the Commission denied the role of Deshmukh in connection with collecting bribes.
Explaining his changing stand, Waze termed himself a “victim affected by Stockholm Syndrome at the hands of Mr Anil Deshmukh” and said he was “subjected to severe mental torture and harassment apparently by the then Home Minister Mr Anil Deshmukh” due to which he made the earlier statements giving Deshmukh a clean chit.
He alleged that even when he was in custody of the Crime Branch, he was “mentally harassed and victimised so as to affect my psyche and state-of-mind”.
In his affidavit seeking retraction of his earlier replies, Waze said that on December 14 during his cross-examination, when he was asked if he had made any payment to Deshmukh, he had replied in the negative. “I say that although I stated the above…I retract the same today. The answer to the above question is Yes,” Waze said in his affidavit.
Waze also wanted to retract his replies where he had said that Deshmukh or his staff had not collected money from him and that he did not remember if Deshmukh had asked him to collect money from bars and restaurants. In both cases as per his latest affidavit that was rejected, Waze sought to implicate Deshmukh.
Waze had earlier raised eyebrows during his deposition before the Commission on December 14 where it appeared he was changing his stand on Deshmukh and not giving evidence against him. It was in contrast to his statements made to the ED earlier that Deshmukh had taken money from him and that he collected money from bars and restaurants and gave it to Deshmukh.
Further during the hearing on Wednesday, Waze made an application that he wanted to further cross-examine Anil Deshmukh. Deshmukh’s advocates sought further time to file their reply on Waze’s application. Another application sought by Waze to bring on record a writ petition filed by Riyaz Bhati was rejected by the Commission.
The Chandiwal Commission has been set up by the state government to probe corruption made by suspended IPS officer Param Bir Singh against Deshmukh.
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