CCTV footage shows Sachin Vaze driving with accused Shinde in Audi

PTI, Apr 2, 2021, 3:19 PM IST

Mumbai: A CCTV footage purportedly showing Vaze and suspended police constable Vinayak Shinde seated inside a black Audi surfaced on Thursday.

The probe agencies so far have seized seven high-end cars used by Vaze – the Scorpio found near Ambani’s residence, two Mercedes cars, a Prado Land Cruiser, a Mitsubishi Outlander, a Volvo, and an Innova.

The CCTV footage which the NIA has obtained is of March 2 and captured at a toll plaza, sources claimed. The central agency is yet to seize the Audi, they added.

The same car had been earlier found parked at the Mumbai Police Commissioner’s office, sources said.

The NIA conducted searches at a hotel and a club in south Mumbai and a flat in neighbouring Thane on Thursday in connection with its probe into the Ambani security scare case, and also detained a woman, an alleged associate of main accused Sachin Vaze, sources said.

A team of the National Investigation Agency, which is probing the recovery of an explosives-laden Scorpio near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence and the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran, reached the Soni building, where the hotel and the club are situated, around 12.45 pm.

Customers and staff members of the hotel were asked to vacate the premises, located near the Babulnath temple.

During the search, the NIA sleuths also made enquiries with a few people at the club and the hotel, the official said. The probe team left the place after over three hours.

Vaze, a suspended police official whom the NIA arrested last month in connection with the case, had been recently brought by the probe agency to the Babulnath area as part of its probe, sources said.

Another NIA team conducted searches at a flat in the Mira Road area in the Thane district.

According to sources, the flat was in a woman’s possession and was locked for over two weeks, and the same woman, an alleged associate of Vaze, was detained by the agency from the airport on Thursday evening. However, this was not officially confirmed by the central agency.

The gelatin sticks found in the vehicle near Ambani’s house had been procured by Vaze himself, NIA sources had claimed on Wednesday.

The NIA on Sunday recovered a laptop, a printer, two hard disks, two vehicle number plates, two digital video recorders (DVRs) and two CPUs from the Mithi river here with the help of divers.

The agency is probing the alleged role of Vaze in parking the explosives-laden SUV near Ambani’s residence on February 25 and in the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.

The body of Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV, was found in a creek in Mumbra town of neighbouring Thane district on March 5.