On February 25, a Scorpio laden with explosives was found parked near Antilla, the residence of billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani. A week later, on March 5, the body of Mansukh Hiran, the man who owned the Scorpio, was found. This sparked off a chain of events that led to the removal of Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, the arrest of some of Mumbai’s most-well known policemen and the arrest of then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Today, one year after the event, several questions pertaining to the case remain unanswered even as the National Investigation Agency has filed a 9000-page chargesheet on September 3 last year. Several aspects of the crime – who masterminded it, if there were any oversight lapses on the part of then Mumbai police commissioner Singh, the source of the gelatin sticks planted in the vehicle, among others – remain unanswered till date.
Vikram Khalate, the NIA SP who was investigating the case, had been transferred out after he completed his tenure of seven years at the agency. However, earlier this year, Khalate was given an extension of a year and brought back to Mumbai NIA to continue overseeing the case.
It was under Khalate’s supervision that the NIA filed a 9000-page chargesheet against 10 accused linked to the Antilia case and invoked terror charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Those who were charged include dismissed cops Sachin Waze, Sunil Mane, Riyazuddin Kazi and Vinayak Shinde, and retired ACP Pradeep Sharma.
Others allegedly involved in the conspiracy are Santosh Shelar, Naresh Gor, Anand Jadhav, Manish Soni and Satish Mothkuri. So far, only one of the accused, Naresh Gor, has been granted bail in the case and the rest are behind bars.
As per the NIA chargesheet, Waze wanted to “regain his glory as a supercop” and also “extort money by putting into them fear of dire consequences”. However, there is no clarity how the accused were to carry out the extortion to collect money from the Ambanis.
The chain of events that would lead to the then Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh being shunted out and his letter alleging corruption charges against then home minister Anil Deshmukh, leading to the latter’s resignation and eventual arrest by the ED, began exactly a year ago.
On February 25, a Scorpio was found parked near Ambani’s residence, Antilia. A threat letter referring to the Ambani family and 20 gelatin sticks were recovered from the vehicle. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was conducting a parallel probe in the matter found that the Scorpio was registered in the name of Mansukh Hiran, a Thane-based car decor shop owner. Waze had called in Hiran for questioning and recorded his statement.
Nearly 10 days later, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, for the first time on the floor of the House alleged Waze’s involvement in the case and showed call records to prove Waze knew Hiran from earlier. The embarrassed Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government transferred the case to ATS. On the same day, the body of Hiran, who had gone missing a day earlier, was found in a creek at Kalwa.
Ultimately, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case. The central agency’s first arrest in the case was Sachin Waze on March 13. The central agency claimed that Waze was the main conspirator, involved in each aspect of the conspiracy.
In the chargesheet, the NIA has provided evidence, including Waze meeting Hiran in South Mumbai, days before the explosives were planted. The agency also claimed that Waze had driven the Scorpio and parked it outside the spot. It is also claimed that he was involved in the murder of Hiran, who was known to him from before, on March 4.
As per the chargesheet, when Waze realized that Hiran would spill the beans about Waze using his Scorpio to plant explosives outside Antilia, he decided to murder him and took the help of retired ACP Pradeep Sharma and inspector Sunil Mane, who was posted with the Mumbai Crime Branch.
The NIA claimed that Waze and Mane told Hiran to go underground for some time as the case had made national headlines. Under that pretext, they picked him up from outside his Thane residence on March 4. Waze then left to conduct a raid in south Mumbai to construct an alibi for himself, according to the chargesheet. Mane allegedly drove Hiran some distance and handed him over to another car, where he was smothered to death. Four other accused were present in the car in which Hiran was murdered, including Mothkuri, Soni, Jadhav and Shelar.
The NIA claims that Gor’s help was taken in procuring SIM cards for the conspiracy and they were delivered to Waze and others through Shinde, who is serving a life term in the Lakhan Bhaiyya encounter case, but was out on parole early this year.
The NIA also claimed that Sharma was involved in the conspiracy with Waze, with call data records allegedly proving that the co-accused were in touch with the two of them. NIA claims that Kazi was involved in destruction of evidence along with Waze. A few months after the incident, the new Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale dismissed Waze, Mane and Kazi from the force.
The chargesheet also does not dwell on whether there were any lapses on the part of the then city police chief Param Bir Singh. Questions about the source of the gelatin sticks planted in the vehicle remain unanswered till date.
NIA officials have remained tight-lipped about whether they will be filing additional evidence or a supplementary chargesheet in the case.
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