Demand for Sachin Vaze’s arrest stalls Assembly

The Legislative Assembly witnessed prolonged ruckus on Tuesday over the demand for the arrest and suspension of Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze in the mysterious death of Thane resident Mansukh Hiran Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis raised the demand quoting from the statement that Hiranrsquos wife has given to the policeHome Minister Anil Deshmukh said the AntiTerrorism Squad ATS would bring the guilty to book He asked for more evidence from the Opposition But Fadnavis said he had given enough material to nail the suspect yet Deshmukh was protecting him raising serious doubtsThe Opposition kept pressing for action against Vaze even as the Shiv Sena and other Maha Vikas Aghadi members tried to turn the tables on the BJP demanding action in the death of Dadra Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar who has named certain people for abetting his suicide in Mumbai and other cases that happened under BJP ruleThe chaos led to the House being stalled for the day following several adjournments delaying the debate on the state budget that Finance Minister Ajit Pawar had presented on Monday During the adjournments all party meetings were held and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and Anil Deshmukh deliberated the issue for countering the Opposition Fadnavis alleged that the government was protecting Vaze because he was affiliated to a certain party He named Dhananjay Gawade a political worker associated with one of the MVA partners as Vazersquos accomplice He said the two had faced an extortion case in which they had applied for anticipatory bail in 2017 He demanded Vazersquos arrest under section 201 disappearance of evidence of the Indian Penal Code if not under section 302 murderldquoHiran was killed in the vehicle and his body thrown 40km from his last mobile location Hiranrsquos wife has named Vaze as a prime suspectrdquo said Fadnavis reading out from the statement of Thane manrsquos wife Fadnavis also demanded that Vaze be removed as head of a crime branch unit fearing moves to destroy evidence Deshmukh turned down the demand saying Vaze was not working with the branch ATS that was probing the chargesShiv Sena leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab made a similar demand in the abetment of Delkarrsquos suicide ldquoAll people named in Delkarrsquos suicide note must be arrested by the Mumbai policerdquo he demandedDeshmukh announced that the MPrsquos suicide would be probed by a Special Investigation Team ldquoDelkarrsquos wife and son have written to me asking for an inquiryrdquo he said adding that the administrator named in the suicide note had worked as home minister in Gujaratrsquos BJP government He said Delkar and an Indian Police Service officer from Madhya Pradesh chose to end their lives in Maharashtra because they believed the Maharashtra government and local police could deliver justice to their familieslsquoIs state suicide destinationrsquoFadnavis dismissed the allegations as baseless and wondered if the government was promoting Maharashtra as a suicide destination ldquoIf it is so then why havenrsquot you succeeded in nailing the culprit in the suicide of Puja Chavanrdquo he askedCongressrsquos Nana Patole demanded to know how Fadnavis could procure CDR call records To this Fadnavis said the state could start an inquiry against him in this regard and he would procure even more evidence if the case was not cracked as demandedThe debate turned volatile further when Senarsquos Bhaskar Jadhav alleged that Fadnavis wanted Vaze arrested and removed from the current position because he did not want the officer to probe the Anvay Naik suicide case in which the lsquoBJPrsquos favouritersquo news anchor Arnab Goswami is an accused ldquoFadnavis buried the case when he was the CM He fears action after our government reopened the caserdquo he said The home minister also made a similar statement telling the House that he wanted to probe Fadnavisrsquos role in the Naik case Fadnavis challenged Deshmukh for initiating action against him saying ldquoSuch threats donrsquot scare merdquo