The Bombay high court on Thursday set aside a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order granting bail to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze in the 2021 Antilia explosives scare and the connected murder of Thane auto-parts dealer Mansukh Hiran.
The prosecution’s case is that the vehicle theft, the placement of the explosives-laden SUV, and Hiran’s murder were connected. Investigators alleged that the explosives incident was not an isolated act but part of a wider conspiracy, with Hiran’s death forming a crucial strand of the case. The allegations are yet to be proved at trial. Sharma allegedly arranged for four contract killers, while another police officer, inspector Sunil Mane, fetched Hiran from his house and handed him over to the contract killers, the agency claimed. However, just a day later, the high court stayed the bail order following an urgent appeal by the NIA. Immediately after the order was pronounced by the NIA court, the federal agency approached the high court.
Waze was arrested by the NIA in March 2021. Five years later, on September 29, a special NIA court granted Waze bail, noting that the agency had failed to justify anti-terror charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Acting on the agency’s plea, the high court had, on September 30, stayed the special NIA court order, preventing Waze’s release from jail.
Waze himself had parked the SUV outside Antilia and given a contract to Sharma to kill Hiran after the businessman refused to take the blame for planting the vehicle, according to the NIA.
A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale on Thursday allowed an appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), challenging the September 29 order by which the special court had granted Waze bail.
