Tag: ATS

Police officer Sachin Veg, who is facing heat in the death of Mansukh Hiran, has filed a bail application before his arrest in a court in neighboring Thane district.

In his plea, Sachin said that no person was named in the FIR lodged by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the deer death case. He called the FIR “baseless and without any motive” and said it was the result of “witch-hunt”.

He further claimed that at the time the deer went missing and was allegedly killed, he was in Dongri, south Mumbai.

Sachin filed a petition in Thane district sessions court under Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC). Under this section, a person can seek bail if he is making an arrest in a case.

The sessions court filed a petition for hearing on 19 March and in response directed the investigating officer to file his affidavit. In his plea, Sachin said that the complaint lodged by Deer’s wife was “based on baldness and without any basis or motive”.

The petition states that it is a stricter law that a bald suspicion of the first informer about the commission of a crime cannot justify the arrest of a citizen.

Sachin, accused of being involved in the suspected death of her husband by Hiran’s wife, was kicked out of the Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday. Sachin’s application further states that there is no inferior material against him and he has not been made an accused in the case.

“The applicant (Sachin) is a resident of Thane for a long time. Even though he was a client and acquaintance of the deceased, the bare reading of the FIR cannot give any motive to the applicant.

The ATS, which is investigating the case, has recorded Sachin’s statement earlier this week. Sachin said in the petition that he was extensively questioned by senior ATS officials on March 8, during which he said that he was in South Mumbai at the relevant time (when Hiran was allegedly murdered).

“On 4 March (all day) the applicant was in South Mumbai. Subsequently, on the night between March 4 and 5, the applicant was in Dongri area. This fact has been duly attested from contemporary records such as Station Diary Entries of Dongri Police Station.

“There is a virtual witch-hunt in betting in the news and social media, in which applicants are pre-judged based on half-incomplete information without proper research and judging by their guilt or innocence,” he said.

Sachin said that he is cooperating in the investigation and hence he should be protected from arrest. Sachin, Assistant Police Inspector of Crime Branch, has been transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Center (CFC) Unit of Mumbai Police.

On February 25, a Scorpio was found near the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in South Mumbai with explosives and threatening letters.

The buck, which was in possession of the SUV, claimed that it was stolen a week ago, but the case became serious when it was found dead in a drain in Thane on 5 March. Deer’s wife claimed that her husband had given her the SUV to Sachin in November, which the officer returned in the first week of February. During questioning by the ATS, Sachin has denied using the SUV that was in the possession of the buck.