New Delhi: Dismissed police officer Pradeep Sharma was the “main conspirator” in the “cold-blooded murder” of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran. This is what the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said in its affidavit in the case pertaining to planting an SUV with 20 gelatin sticks outside the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Antilia.
The NIA, aware of the entire conspiracy, told the Bombay High Court that Hiran was considered the ‘weak link’ in the larger conspiracy to “terrorise” the billionaire Ambani family when the SUV was discovered on February 25, 2021, sending shockwaves across the country.
The NIA affidavit, opposing the bail plea of Sharma who was nabbed on June 17, 2021 and is currently in judicial custody, said he was not innocent and had committed offences of criminal conspiracy, murder, and terror acts.
A division bench comprising Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice GA Sanap has kept Sharma’s bail plea, challenging the Special NIA Court’s rejection of his bail application in February 2022, for further hearing on July 17.
“Pradeep Sharma was an active member of a gang that had conspired to terrorise people, including the Ambani family, and murdered Hiran as he was a weak link in the conspiracy,” said the NIA, adding that Sharma and other accused were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for heinous and serious offences.
Hiran was aware of the entire conspiracy of parking the SUV outside Antilia that day and the accused (Sharma and co-conspirator and sacked cop Sachin Vaze) feared that he (Hiran) could spill the beans making it difficult for the duo to gather the fruits of the larger plot.
The NIA said that from the evidence gathered, it was crystal clear that Sharma was directly involved in the crime and committed offences of conspiracy, terrorist act, being a member of a terror gang, kidnapping, murder, and destruction of evidence.
It said Sharma willingly and intentionally entered into a well-organised criminal conspiracy for the execution of Hiran which was a direct outcome of the terror acts committed by Vaze and the other accused.
The NIA also claimed that Hiran was eliminated after he refused to take the blame for parking the SUV outside Antilia. “When Hiran refused to take blame for the crime, Vaze hatched a conspiracy with Sharma and other accused to kill Hiran so that he does not divulge that Vaze was the one who parked the vehicle outside Antilia,” the NIA said in its affidavit.
The larger conspiracy in the case involved parking the SUV, and circulating threat letters in the name of ‘Jaish-ul-Hind’ to terrorise the Ambani family and local people.
The NIA pointed out that after killing Hiran, the accused (Sharma-Vaze) attempted to show it as a suicide. Shockingly, Sharma had attended meetings in the Commissioner of Police premises where the alleged conspiracy was hatched.
As the main conspirator, Sharma hired henchmen to kill Hiran by paying Rs 45 lakhs he had got from Vaze, and after the murder, asked the co-accused to flee from Mumbai to Nepal.
The NIA argued that Sharma was famous as an ‘encounter specialist’, influential and if released on bail, he would tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses.
An SUV, filled with at least 20 gelatin sticks, was found abandoned outside Antilia, the lavish multi-storied home of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani, in Mumbai on the evening of February 25.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had on September 3, 2021, slapped terror and murder charges against 10 accused in the case. The voluminous charge sheet, filed with the Special NIA Court in Mumbai, has named the 10 accused in the twin cases that rocked the nation after they came to light in February-March last year.
The accused are dismissed police officials Sachin H Vaze and Vinayak B Shinde, both from Thane, and Mumbaikars – Naresh R Gor of Grant Road, Hisamuddin Kazi of Jogeshwari, Sunil D Mane, Santosh A Shelar and Manish V Soni, all from Malad, Anand P Jadhav and Pradeep R. Sharma, both of Andheri, Satish T Mothkuri of Goregaon, said the NIA.
Antilia and the south Mumbai neighbourhood house the who’s who of the Indian corporate world, top politicians, official or private residences of various bigwigs, government officials, diplomats, people from the glamour industry and others.
(With agency inputs)
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