A special court on Wednesday rejected former Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze’s plea seeking formal release in a corruption case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Waze had moved an application before the court seeking the dropping of the charges and release from the case, saying the purpose of pardon will be “vitiated”, if a person continues to be in prison under the guise of being protected.
The plea was rejected by special judge S H Gwalani.
Waze, who has turned an approver in the corruption case linked to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, continues to be in judicial custody.
Deshmukh and the other accused are currently out on bail.
Waze submitted before the court that the other accused persons in the case have been granted bail, but he continues to be in detention.
He claimed though the probe agency had consented to his pardon to strengthen its case, he is now being treated like an accused person.
Opposing the dismissed policeman’s plea, special public prosecutor Raja Thakare had said he was produced before this court as an arrested accused person, and any accused brought before the court remains so until he is discharged or acquitted.
Provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) grant power of pardon to the court, but that very fact doesn’t mean that the person is discharged from a case, he argued.
The CBI had registered a corruption case against Deshmukh on allegations made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
Singh had alleged Deshmukh, then home minister, had directed police personnel to collect Rs 100 crore per month from restaurants and bars in Mumbai.
The other accused in the case are Deshmukh’s former aides Sanjeev Palande and Kundan Shinde.
Waze is also an accused in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate as well as in the Antilia bomb scare and the killing of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran cases.
