Mumbai:
A special NIA court here on Saturday framed charges against former policemen Sachin Waze, Pradeep Sharma, and eight other accused in the 2021 Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case.
They will now face trial under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code for murder as well as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Special National Investigation Agency court judge Chakor Baviskar framed the charges after the accused pleaded not guilty.
An SUV with explosives inside was found near billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence ‘Antilia’ in south Mumbai on February 25, 2021. Businessman Mansukh Hiren, who claimed that the SUV had been stolen from his possession, was found dead in a creek in neighbouring Thane on March 5, 2021.
Waze was arrested in the case a few days later. According to the NIA, he was involved in parking the SUV near Ambani’s house, and the motive was to terrorise wealthy individuals and extort money to meet a Rs 100-crore monthly target allegedly set by a high-ranking political figure. The former ‘encounter specialist’ police officer also wanted to regain his “lost glory” as a “super cop”, the agency said.
The NIA further claimed that Waze subsequently conspired to eliminate Hiran because he refused to take the blame for the explosives and was considered a “weak link” who could expose the conspiracy.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
