MUMBAI: The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday granted bail to former Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze in the Antilia explosives case and the related murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiren in 2021.
The court observed there was not an “iota of material” to suggest that the former encounter cop had “terrorised” anyone in the case.
Rather, the facts appear otherwise. Neither had the NIA recorded statements of any of the Ambani family members, the court held further asking what had prevented the investigative agency from recording the statements of the Ambani family members. The court accepted the arguments advanced by advocate Sajal Yadav on behalf of Waze regards the charge of murder and conspiracy.
Waze was arrested by the NIA on March 13, 2021, for allegedly planting an explosives-laden SUV outside the Altamount Road residence of Mukesh Ambani. The car that belonged to Mansukh Hiren had 20 gelatine sticks and a note that threatened to kill members of the Ambani family. Further complicating the matter, on March 4, Hiran went missing after leaving his Thane home to meet a police officer at Ghodbunder Road in Thane but his body was recovered from a creek in Thane on March 5, leading to registration of the third case – an accidental death report – at Mumbra police station. A day after the recovery of his body, Hiran’s wife gave a statement to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) claiming her husband was killed after which the ADR was converted into a murder case on March 7.
The court, in its bail order, said the prosecution had failed to establish in exactly “whose mind the applicant/accused Sachin wanted to create terror…There is absolutely nothing on record even to infer by any stretch of imagination that the Ambanis or any one of them is/was, are/were ever terrorized in any manner. Day-to-day business of the Ambanis does not appear to have been disturbed even for a minute,” said judge Chakor Bawiskar. . “Even if we suppose that he wanted to create terror in the minds of Ambanis, it is impossible to accept that any such terror was in fact ever created in the mind of anyone, least in their minds,” the special judge added while holding that prima facie the acts of the former policeman fell short of a terrorist act, as defined under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. It termed the NIA’s tardiness in this matter as “incompetence”. “No one knows which mahurat (good appropriate and auspicious time) the Investigating Agency is waiting for to record statement of any of the targets of the alleged terror plot, especially as a long gap of five to six years has already lapsed since the incident,” said the special court. Waze, it said, was entitled to parity as two other former Mumbai police officers implicated in the case, Pradip Sharma and Sunil Mane, both of whom had already been granted bail.
On February 25, the “stolen” vehicle was found parked outside Antilia with 20 gelatine sticks and a letter threatening the Ambani family, triggering the registration of a second FIR.
