Every new morning is bringing out new details about API Sachin Vaze and his alleged extortion racket which he ran in cahoots with Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh according to former Mumbai Commissioner of Police, Param Bir Singh. Now, a report further reveals that Vaze often used to travel with multiple fake IDs and stayed at prominent five-star hotels with bag loads of cash allegedly to deal with ‘dirty money.’
According to a report by ThePrint, the arrested Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze had checked into five-star hotels in South Mumbai under the name S. Khamkar more than 50 times in the last three months using fake Aadhaar cards and with bags full of money. The report quoted anonymous NIA sources over these sensational revelations.
An anonymous source while speaking to ThePrint said, “Vaze took a fake name, one of which is S. Khamkar and had fake Aadhaar cards. He checked into the South Mumbai hotel on 16 February with a bag full of cash and stayed there till 20 February. We suspect that he checked into the hotel for settlement of accounts of some people including influential businessmen. He often dealt with a lot of dirty, tainted money.”
Recently the NIA had seized a currency-counting machine and over Rs 5 lakh cash from a Mercedes which was allegedly used by Vaze.
The source added, “He used to book not just one but multiple rooms and businessmen used to pay for it. We accessed details of the account numbers through which these stays were booked and more names are expected to come out.”
The source further added, “His stay at Oberoi was not the first time that he stayed at a five star. We have details of him checking into five-star hotels under fake names on at least 50 occasions in the last three months.”
Raising legitimate questions over how Vaze with his position as the Police Inspector accumulate so much wealth, the source questioned, “How does a PI [police inspector] rank official get so much money to splurge at these hotel stays? Why book multiple rooms? Why would a policeman use fake ID cards? We have CCTV footage of Waze at the reception, at the lobby, the entrance to corroborate these booking, along with hotel records.”
Recently, as per a report by Mid-Day, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) was advocating Singh’s allegations as they recount horror tales of extortion mafia allegedly run by Vaze and co.
According to the publication, API Sachin Vaze had allegedly started collecting money two months before Anil Deshmukh made the alleged demands. In fact, it was well-oiled machinery with establishments being divided into three categories to derive their amounts.
It is being alleged that Vaze had listed bars into three categories: A, B and C. While speaking to Mid-Day, a bar owner said, “The A category was supposed to shell out Rs 2 lakh a month, B had to pay Rs 1.5 lakh while C had to pay Rs 1 lakh.” The owner added, “Waze must have needed the machine to count the cash he collected.”
