Extortion Case: Mumbai Court Extends Sachin Waze's Police Custody Till Nov 13

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate AA Ghaniwale extended his remand after Waze's counsel Rounak Naik did not oppose the prayer for further custody.

Naik said that his client wanted to cooperate with the investigation agency.

The case refers to an extortion call made to builder-cum-hotelier Bimal Agarwal between January 2020 and March 2021. The accused are Waze, Param Bir Singh, Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Alpesh Patel, Vinay Singh alias Babloo and Riyaz Bhati. They have been booked under Sections 384, 385 (both pertaining to extortion), and Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

In the remand seeking further custody, the Crime Branch mentioned that Waze along with wanted accused number Param Bir Singh extorted money from cricket bookies by threatening them with arrests and the manner in which this was done has to be investigated.

The Crime Branch has further said that co-accused Alpesh Patel was arrested from Mehasana railway station, at Gujarat. "While he was absconding, Patel destroyed the mobile phone and SIM card used during the offence. Hence, section 201 of the IPC for destruction of evidence has been invoked."

They further said that Waze volunteered to give his voice sample while in custody. It was recorded in the presence of two. The memory card of the samples seized and sent to forensic test, along with hash value.

When asked about extortion money, the agency said Waze is not cooperating, giving evasive replies, not giving relevant information. When asked about information related to the recorded WhatsApp calls part of the complainant, he's giving evasive replies, the police claimed.

The agency has further said that it wants to probe whether Waze took money from anyone else at the instance of Param Bir Singh; who apart from the wanted accused helped Waze in extortion and to find out what was done with the extortion money.

In the remand the crime branch said since Waze is close to Param Bir Singh, it wanted to question him on Param Bir's current whereabouts

The crime branch informed the court that the complainant and Waze's voice samples have been recorded and sent for forensic examination.

Mobile phones given to Sachin Waze by the complainant as part of the extortion has been seized. Waze had exchanged the two phones in Thane. One of the phones is yet to be seized, the remand said.