Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said Wednesday that those guilty of Mansukh Hiran’s death will be punished, but policeman Sachin Vaze should not be attacked until his alleged involvement is established.
In the face of the heat over Assistant Police Inspector Vaze’s alleged connection to Hiran’s mysterious death, the government announced his transfer from the Mumbai Criminal Investigation Department earlier in the day.
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Hiran, who was in possession of the vehicle that was later found with explosives outside the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, was found dead in a stream in Thane last week. His wife made allegations against Vaze in her statement.
“Sachin Vaze is not Osama Bin Laden. It is not right to target a person and hang them up and then examine them,” Thackeray said here.
“Let the investigation be over. The guilty, whoever they are, will not be spared,” he said, speaking to reporters after the Maharashtra legislature’s budget session ended.
In response to opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis’ allegation that Vaze was a member of Thackeray’s Shiv Sena party, the prime minister said the officer joined the party in 2008 and did not renew his membership.
“Now he has nothing to do with the Shiv Sena,” he said.
“Dadra Nagar Haveli’s administrator, Praful Kheda Patel, who was named in the suicide note from (Lok Sabha member) Mohan Delkar, was also earlier with the BJP,” Thackeray said.
The state government was looking for the Call Detail Record (CDR) in the Hiran case, which Fadnavis owned, he said.
Thackeray denied the BJP’s claim that Mumbai police were investigating Mohan Delkar’s alleged suicide in the city last month for diverting attention from Vaze’s complicity in the Hiran case.
“The FIR in the Delkar case was filed after a complaint was received from his family members. We are not involved in politics,” he said.
This story was published by a wire agency feed with no changes to the text. Only the heading was changed.
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