New twist in Sachin Waze probe - NIA reveals cop was running alleged extortion racket from five-star hotel

The arrested Mumbai cop Sachin Waze's case is getting murkier with each passing day. In the latest, the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) probe has revealed that the cop was running his alleged extortion racket from a room in a five-star hotel situated in Nariman Point. According to NIA, the hotel was booked by a businessman for Waze for 100 days at a cost of Rs 12 lakh.

It also reveals that Sachin Waze used a fake identity to check into the five-star hotel. Several other police officers, who have worked with Waze are also been interrogated by the probe body.

The probe also brings to light that the suspended cop was operating out of room number 1964 of the hotel, which he checked into using a forged Aadhaar card and the fictitious name by Sushant Sadashiv Khamkar.

A shootout specialist, Waze was arrested on March 13 on charges of planning the planting of a Scorpio car laden with gelatin sticks and a threat letter near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence, Antilia.

Sources in the NIA said on Thursday that the suspended cop killed Thane businessman Mansukh Hiren, the owner of the Scorpio car as he thought the latter was a weak link in the bomb scare case.

The agency has also conducted searches at another hotel and a club in south Mumbai and a flat in neighbouring Thane on Thursday in connection with its probe. The agency also detained a woman associate of Waze from the airport on Thursday, the report said.

The flat searched in the Mira Road area of Thane was allegedly owned by this woman.

The 'mystery woman' angle had emerged in the case from March 25 when CCTV grabs of a five-star hotel showed her closely trailing Waze out of the hotel, where he had stayed for at least five days in mid-February, baffling the NIA sleuths.