Sachin Waze

Sachin Hindurao Vaze (Marathi: सचिन वझे) (born 22 February 1972) is a former police officer of the Maharashtra Police Force of India. Vaze is known as an "encounter specialist" with the Mumbai Encounter Squad and was involved with the deaths of as many as 63 criminals. Vaze joined Maharashtra Police Force in 1990 and he resigned on 30 November 2007. He had killed several gangsters of the top criminal organisations like Chotta Rajan and Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company.

Biography and career

Sachin Vaze is originally from Kolhapur in the Indian state of Maharashtra. His father was a top influential politician in the region.

Vaze joined the State Police Service in 1990 as a sub inspector. He was first posted to the terror affected area of Gadchiroli, commonly called as Naxal Affected Area. Then in 1992 he was moved to Thane City Police. He gained immediate fame by detecting several big cases. While posted at Muslim majority Mumbra Police Station, he was instrumental in Hindu Muslim harmony in the area. Rising to higher ranks, he went to head the Special Squad of Thane Crime Branch who started encounters in Thane and thus selected to work at the elite Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai Police.

Encounters squad

His career spanned 17 years, during which Vaze earned fame for the "encounter killings" of as many as 63 criminals. These include notorious gangsters like Munna Nepali,^[1][2][3]

This squad was formed around 1997 to deal with the growing extortion demands and open violence. The squads soon came to be associated with 'encounters', a euphemism for a situation in which a gangster is cornered, asked to surrender, ostensibly attacks the police or tries to escape, and is shot dead in retaliatory action.^[4] After posting in the CIU, Vaze, along with his mentor Pradeep Sharma, was transferred in the Anti Extortion Cell (AE Cell) where the AE Cell recorded its first ever encounter.^[5][6]

Vaze also dealt with counterfeit currency cases^[7][8] and was instrumental in saving a number of Bollywood personalities.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Technology crime

Sachin Vaze is also mostly known for his techno and cyber skills. Always seen with modern gadgets and gizmos in his hands and pockets, Vaze is known to have solved many serious cyber crimes. He is also believed to have set up cellphone interception units as well as email tracking units of Mumbai Police. He came in light in 1997 when he detected international credit card fraud. This was the first time when a gang of such scamsters was arrested in Asia. Which he then continued in Mumbai too in 2001.^[13][14] Many believe that this quality made the people against Vaze to embroil him in a murder case of a terrorist.^[15] After a rising career graph, Vaze resigned in 2007.^[16]

Technology innovation – MobiCID

Vaze has come out with an innovation mobile app called – MobiCID. In a very short period MobiCID been acknowledged by various sectors in media^{[17][18][19][20][21][22]}

In popular culture

• Rege, a Marathi film (2014) starring Pushkar Shrotri as Sachin Vaze

Political affiliation

Proximity with Shiv Sena head Uddhav Thackeray^[23][24][25] After resignation Vaze had joined the Hindu Party in prestigious Dassehara Rally in 2008. This had set a new precedent as none of the politician was allowed to enter Shiv Sena in the rally before. While in CIU, Vaze, registering his first encounter at Mumbai killed Vivek Kamble, who was wanted in several killings of Shiv Sena Shakha Pramukhs (Branch Heads). Vaze had also nabbed the remaining gang involved in these killings.^[26][27][28] Vaze also runs an NGO called SUPPORT which is intended towards legal help to needy people.

Books, publications, movies

While in service Vaze was instrumental in forming new rules, manuals, directives etc for Maharashtra Police. After resigning from service Vaze participated in television debates, and published articles in newspapers and periodicals.^[29] He has also been publishing articles on Cyber Crime issues. In Marathi Film Rege(2014) one character is inspired and named after him which is played by Pushkar Shrotri.

Vaze is author of Jinkun Harleli Ladhaai -^[30] the Marathi bestseller book on 26/11 Mumbai attacks and also source and advisor of many books projects such as Hussain Zaidi written Headley & I, My Name is Abu Salem, Byculla to Bangkok, Adrian Levy written The Siege.^[31]

Marathi Facebook

Vaze is also the brain behind and creator of the first social networking portal in Marathi. लई भारी www.laibhaari.com is the Marathi version of Facebook. The portal put on test run on 4 November 2010 and had a membership figure of 15000+ till formally launched on 21 November 2010.^{[32][33][34][35]}

References