Hiran death case: Cop Sachin Vaze files pre-arrest bail plea

Mumbai: Police officer Sachin Vaze, who has been facing heat in the death case of Mansukh Hiran, has filed a pre-arrest bail application in a court in neighbouring Thane district. Vaze filed the plea under section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in the Thane district sessions court. Under this section, a person can seek bail if he or she is apprehending arrest in a case.

The sessions court posted the plea for hearing on March 19 and directed the investigating officer to file his affidavit in reply. Vaze, accused by Hiran's wife of involvement in her husband's suspicious death, was shunted out of the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday. Vaze, who was crime branch's Assistant Police Inspector, has been transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC) unit of Mumbai police. On February 25, a Scorpio was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house in south Mumbai with explosives and a threat letter inside.

Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV, had claimed that it had been stolen a week earlier, but the case got murky when he was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5. Hiran's wife had claimed that her husband had given the SUV to Vaze in November, which the officer returned in the first week of February. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which is probing the case, has recorded Vaze's statement earlier this week, in which he has denied using the SUV that was in possession of Hiran.