MUMBAI: Former police officer Sachin Waze on Friday questioned the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) claim that he had parked the explosive-laden SUV outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, Antilia, in February 2021, and fled in a trailing getaway vehicle.
The footage purportedly showed an Innova stopping eight to ten feet away from the parked Scorpio before moving ahead, with no one seen getting out of the Scorpio and entering the Innova. The court has directed the NIA to file its response to Waze’s application. The former assistant police inspector submitted CCTV footage from a store opposite the spot where the Scorpio was found on Carmichael Road on February 25, 2021. Waze also claimed that the CCTV footage was broadcast as recently as September 4, during an interview with former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh. He alleged that the NIA had suppressed crucial evidence despite the Gamdevi police having seized the store’s original digital video recorder on February 26, 2021.
In an application filed before the special NIA court, Waze submitted CCTV footage and a television interview of a witness that purportedly contradicts the prosecution’s account. Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court had questioned the NIA on the evidence it relied upon to establish that Waze had parked the Scorpio outside Antilia.
the trial court had noted that the agency failed to justify anti-terror charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and there was no evidence on record to show that the Ambani family had been terrorised While granting bail. Waze is the key accused in the high-profile bomb scare case and the subsequent murder of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran, who owned the Mahindra Scorpio found outside Antilia with 20 loose gelatin sticks and a note threatening the Ambani family.
“Where is the material to show that it’s actually Waze who parked the vehicle? How did you connect the dots?” the high court had asked the federal agency. The high court made the remarks while hearing the NIA’s appeal against the special NIA court’s order granting Waze bail in the case.
