After former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s sensational letter to Uddhav Thackeray where he accused Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of running a large scale extortion racket through API Sachin Vaze, as per a report by Mid-Day, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) is 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.”
It is pertinent to note that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had earlier seized a currency-counting machine and over Rs 5 lakh cash from a Mercedes which was used by Vaze.
According to the report, as soon as the business limped back to normalcy post the lockdown, hafta collections resumed according to various restaurant and bar owners. This is in line with Singh’s letter, according to which, Vaze used to collect money from various establishments by threatening the owners with impending raids.
An anonymous hotel owner said, “Waze had been running his shop at the CIU office inside the compound of the Commissioner of Police office in Crawford Market. He would call entrepreneurs from the Food and Beverage business and convince them to cough up monthly amounts. In return, he would assure us that SSB officials would not conduct any raids at our establishments. He also assured that we’d stay out of other legal troubles.”
A senior member of AHAR said, “A few hotel and bar owners in Ghatkopar, Borivli and Worli had been collecting funds from nearby hotel owners and sending the money to Waze at the CIU office.”
The owner of a well-known restaurant in Bandra said, “We got Waze’s horror service in the name of protection from the SSB raids. This happened soon after businesses resumed after the lockdown. It is hard to believe that Waze would be involved in such acts without keeping high-ranking officials in the loop.”
Such was the fear and the efficiency of the extortion racket allegedly run by Vaze and co, that those who refused to comply would face a crackdown by the SSB. The SSB deals with ladies bars and hotels. Mid-Day quoted a source as saying, “SSB carried out raids at hotels and bars and filed cases. The last SSB raid was in early February. After that, no raid was conducted as everybody agreed to pay the money to be able to operate.”
The claims made by various hotel and bar owners are in line with the allegations made by Param Bir Singh in his explosive letter. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh thus has no moral right to stay on.