A MAGISTRATE court in a recent order rejected the bail application of dismissed cop Sachin Waze in connection with an extortion case. While Waze had filed for bail stating that he had spent more than half the term of the maximum punishment in the offences he has been booked for, the court refused to consider this ground. Waze was booked along with others on the complaint of a businessman who alleged that Rs 9 lakh was extorted from him in December 2020-March 2021. The case was later transferred to the CBI on orders of the Supreme Court. Waze was arrested in March 2021 in connection with the Antilia terror scare case. He had submitted in his bail plea in July that he should be granted benefit under Section 436 A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which has provisions for release of an undertrial who has spent in jail more than half of the maximum punishment he faces. The court, however, said that Waze faces offences related to extortion which has a maximum of ten years imprisonment. “Thus, the accused has not undergone detention period of one half of the maximum 10 years imprisonment. Therefore, the accused cannot be given benefit of Section 436A of the Code Criminal Procedure to release him on bail," the court said. Waze and three others including former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh were named in the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai police. While two of the accused were arrested and granted bail, Singh was not arrested. Singh appeared before the court in May as summons were issued to him after a chargesheet was filed by the Mumbai police. He was then granted bail. In May, the CBI had moved a plea before the court seeking to put the trial on hold stating that its probe is still on. The court had last month allowed the plea. Waze in his bail plea also took the ground that this means that the trial is not likely to commence soon and he should be considered for bail. The court said that the chargesheet is already filed in the case and the ground cannot be considered.
