Antilia Bomb Scare: Woman Escort Tells NIA Waze Paid Her Rs 50,000 Per Month

A woman escort has told the National Investigation Agency that former police officer Sachin Waze, an accused in the Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case, was one of her clients and had started paying Rs 50,000 to her per month from August last year.

The woman also told the NIA that she was not aware of the source of Rs 1.25 crore that was credited to the current account of a firm, of which she was made a director by Sachin Waze.

Her statement is part of the charge-sheet filed by the NIA last week in the case pertaining to planting of an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in February this year and the subsequent murder of Mansukh Hiran, who had said that the vehicle was stolen from his possession. Hiran's body was found in a creek in Thane in the first week of March.

In her statement, the woman said she met Waze for the first time in 2011.

The statement said that after Waze was reinstated in the police force in June 2020, he asked her to stop working as an escort as he would be getting a decent income.

"Accordingly, I stopped that work and Sachin started paying me Rs 50,000 every month from August 2020 towards my monthly expenses," the statement said.

The woman said that Waze advised her to open two proprietary firms for regular income.

She told the probe agency that apart from the amount (Rs 50,000), he had never given her any cash. But for business purposes, he used to transfer amounts either to her savings accounts or to the current account of two firms.

On a query related to the CCTV footage of a five-star hotel in Mumbai, the woman said that Waze had given notes of Rs 40 lakh and Rs 36 lakh to her for counting and sorting between February 18 and 19.

When asked about multiple RTGS credits worth Rs 39 lakh into her saving accounts from different firms, the woman said she didn't know the entities from which the money was transferred into her accounts.

"These credits were received into my account as per the arrangements made by Sachin Waze and a part of the funds thus received was transferred (from her account) to the current account of Motosurgeon Automobile Private Ltd, wherein I was made a director by Waze," she told the NIA.

On being asked about the entries of Rs 1.25 crore in the current account of another firm named Mayank Automation, the woman said she wasn't aware why these amount was credited.

"Waze must be aware at whose instance Mayank Automation was created. I used to give him signed blank cheques for transactions in its current account," her statement said as per the charge sheet.

As per the NIA, it was Waze who had hatched the conspiracy to place the vehicle with explosives near Ambani's house. Waze wanted to regain his past glory as "supercop" by staging a fake encounter, the charge sheet claimed.

(PTI inputs)