Panel tells Waze it can't be used as forum for slander

Rejecting dismissed police officer Sachin Waze’s application to retract his earlier statements before the Chandiwal commission, the state-appointed panel headed by Justice K U Chandiwal observed that the commission “cannot be reduced to a forum where one’s own desire and slander can be bandied about under guise of legal argument.”

- Prafulla Marpakwar

Mumbai: Justice Chandiwal said the application seemed to be “a calculated move to shield somebody else.”

On Wednesday (Feb 9), Waze sought permission to retract his earlier statements made before the panel. While he had stated during cross-examination that former home minister Anil Deshmukh had never demanded money from him and that he had never collected money from bars and bar owners, on Wednesday he filed an affidavit saying he had collected money for Deshmukh and from bars and bar owners. He said his previous statements were made under duress.