Cop in charge of TRP rigging investigation arrested by NIA

Mumbai Police Assistant Inspector Sachin Vaze was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in relation to the Ambani bomb case. This is not the first time the police inspector has been arrested. His first arrest was in 2004 in relation to the custodial death case of Khwaja Yunus for which the trial is ongoing. It fact it has only been 10 months since Vaze has resumed duty since his previous arrest to being arrested again by the NIA.

NIA allege that Vaze is suspected in the murder of Mansukh Hiran, a Thane based auto parts dealers, whose stolen vehicle was found in the Ambani compound laden with explosives.

Mansukh Hiran, a Thane based auto parts dealer claimed that his vehicle abandoned a week earlier, and later Hiran's body was found in a marshy area in Mumbai on 5th March where his wife Vimla suspected Vaze saying he was involved in his husband's murder case as he had taken possession of Hiran's car in November and returned it in February and it had been stolen thereafter.

Sachin Vaze is also leading the investigation into the TRP scam and is responsible for 15 arrests made in relation to the case including high profile arrests of journalist Arnab Goswami, Republic Media Network CEO Vikas Khanchandani, and ex-BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

Reports indicate that Vaze is close to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and is part of the Shiv Sena party.

Vaze is a celebrity cop who has been in charge of high profile cases like the Hrithik-Kangana spat involving exchange of emails between them in 2016. He is a known encounter specialist having worked in the Mumbai and Thane area and has recorded 60 confirmed kills of criminals.