Waze's joint account, suspicious movement around crime scene under NIA scanner

New Delhi, Apr 04: The National Investigation Agency said that it has evidence to show that suspended Mumbai cop, Sachin Waze had suspiciously moved towards the crime scene on March 4, when Mansukh Hiran had gone missing.

"We have analysed the IPDR which shows the accused (Waze) suspiciously moved towards the scene of offence on March 4, the NIA told a court.

Further the NIA also said that Waze had a joint account and locker with an accomplice at the Development Credit Bank in Versova. There was Rs 26.5 lakh in that account the NIA also said. The agency said that on March 18, incriminating material was removed from the locker.

The NIA said that it was wanted to find out why the articles were removed and where they had been kept.

The National Investigation Agency has also detained a woman seen with Waze. CCTV footage showed the lady leaving a hotel in South Mumbai with Waze before the Antilla bomb scare. The NIA conducted searches at the flat of the woman and even questioned her. It is alleged that the woman was working to whitewash Waze's black money.

Officials say that the lady was using two IDs and even had a note counting machine that was found in Waze's car last month.
Meanwhile, the NIA Thursday conducted searches at a club over the alleged murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran, whose car was used in creating a security scare outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani''s residence, and recovered crucial documents pertaining to the SIM cards used by suspended police officer Sachin Waze, officials said.

They said the searches were carried out at ''Aashish Club'' run by a person identified as Devajit who is alleged to have employed one of the accused in the case, Naresh Gor, on Waze''s instructions.

The officials said that Waze had instructed Naresh to procure SIM cards for his personal use. Naresh is alleged to have procured the SIM cards from the neighbouring state of Gujarat and these were handed over to Waze through co-accused Vinayak Shinde, the officials said.

One of these SIM cards was used by Waze to give a call to Hiran, which turned out to be the last call before the businessman was killed. The body of Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV used in the security scare incident, was found in a creek in the Mumbra town of the neighbouring Thane district on March 5.

During the searches on Thursday, documents pertaining to the SIM cards were seized from the club, besides some other material that indicated that alleged kickbacks being paid to government servants, the officials said.

They said Hiran was allegedly killed by Waze after reports started surfacing that the case would be handed over to the central agency for probe.

Initial investigations suggested that Hiran was called to a place where he was made unconscious with the help of some drugs before being smothered to death.

His vehicle was found outside Ambani''s house in Mumbai on February 25 with gelatin sticks and a threat note.

The NIA has said in the court that Waze had taken the car from Hiran before allegedly planting the explosives and parking it outside Ambani''s house on February 25.

Waze was arrested on March 15 by the NIA and is at present in the custody of the agency till April 3.