HC vacation bench posts to June 14 Sachin Waze's plea against bar on release as approver

MUMBAI: Bombay high court vacation bench on Wednesday issued notice to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and State in a petition filed by the incarcerated dismissed police officer Sachin Waze who challenged the validity of a provision that bars release of approvers till trial is over and sought his release from prison, pending trial. Waze’s handwritten plea for an order of habeas corpus (to be produced from an unlawful detention) said while he is an approver in the April 2021 case against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in the case of alleged collection of money from 1750 Mumbai restaurants and bars, he is still inside.
Senior counsel Aabad Ponda with advocate Rounak Naik for Waze, who is lodged in the solitary cells Taloja prison, in Navi Mumbai, submitted that while an approver, who is a state witness is still behind bars the prime accused, Deshmukh has been granted bail. Deshmukh, arrested in April 2022 was granted bail by the HC in
Waze was granted pardon by the trial court in June 2022. In Jan 2023, three other co-accused were granted bail by court. The special NIA trial court rejected Waze’s plea for bail last April.
Waze, who earlier this month was permitted by the special trial court established for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases, a daily limited internet-less access to a laptop and headphones to analyse the 1.3 Tb electronic evidence against him, had filed his plea prior to the court summer vacation, but mentioned it during citing issues of liberty.
He challenged the legal validity of section 306 (4) (b) of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) that bars release of an approver till termination of trial, unless he was already released on bail earlier. Waze’s petition questions whether the section overrides other provisions of CrpC and allows the court to do complete justice and enables the trial court to extend the custody indefinitely and absolutely.
The vacation bench of Justices Nitin Borkar and Somasekhar Sundaresan, issuing notice, said let the matter come up before the regular bench post vacation on June 14. No one appeared for the CBI on Wednesday.