Antilia explosives scare: NIA court rejects Vinayak Shinde’s bail plea

Former police constable Vinayak Shinde's bail application has been rejected by a special NIA court in the Antilia explosives scare and murder case of Mansukh Hiran. Shinde's lawyer argued that his role was small and he was acting on his senior's orders. The prosecution opposed the bail application, stating that Shinde played an important role from the beginning. The incident occurred in February 2021 when a vehicle with explosives was found near Mukesh Ambani's residence. Hiran, the vehicle owner, was later found dead.

MUMBAI: A special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court on Saturday rejected the bail application of former police constable Vinayak Shinde in the Antilia explosives scare and connected murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran.

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Advocate Dinesh Tiwari, representing the accused, prayed for bail on merits and on the grounds of parity, as the court had previously granted bail to co-accused Naresh Gor. “Gor was granted bail on the same contentions. Just because he (Shinde) has some other case pending against him, don’t let that affect the current hearing unless the prosecution has a strong footing,” advocate Tiwari said.

He vehemently argued that Shinde was charged with offences that were not serious compared to other co-accused and that his role in the entire incident was small. “We are dealing with a case of no case. His biggest role was to provide SIM cards. He was not involved in the planting of the sticks or the murder of Hiran. Providing SIM cards is not a crime in itself. He was only supposed to get those SIM cards activated according to the senior’s orders,” he said.

He further submitted that Shinde, being subordinate, was acting merely on his senior’s orders, without knowing the consequences and hence, did not doubt Sachin Waze’s intentions, as he met several people daily.

Special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves, representing the NIA, strongly opposed the bail application and contended that nothing has changed since the rejection of Shinde’s previous bail pleas.

“There is total silence when it comes to section 120B of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with criminal conspiracy, and conspiracies are always hatched in secrecy. It must be noted that giving and taking SIM cards is not illegal, but these were dummy SIM cards. This is illegal in itself. One may not know the final outcome, but using dummy SIM cards is the starting point of the entire case. The applicant has played an important role since the beginning,” he argued.

The prosecution also submitted that the entire situation would have been different if the applicant had been a layman. “The accused is a former police officer who was convicted in the encounter killing of Lakhan Bhaiya in 2006. He was on parole when he came in contact with Waze and started helping Waze in his illegal acts. The applicant posed himself as a constable when he was not and misused his parole leave,” the prosecution said.

The incident occurred on February 25, 2021, when a Mahindra Scorpio was found abandoned near Antilia – the south Mumbai residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani with 20 loose gelatine sticks kept in a backpack and a note threatening the members of the Ambani family. On March 5, 2021, the body of the vehicle owner - Thane trader Mansukh Hiran - was found dumped in a creek near Mumbra.

According to the NIA, officer Sachin Waze had planted the explosive-laden vehicle outside Antilia. The federal agency claimed that Waze, who had known the vehicle owner since long before the incident, and others had tried to persuade Hiran to accept the blame for planting the explosives-laden vehicle outside Antilia and assured to bail him out at the earliest. They, however, decided to kill him, after the 48-year-old refused to take the blame and get arrested.

Waze allegedly paid a huge amount to former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma to get Hiran killed and Sharma then arranged for four persons to get the job done, the agency added. The agency added that another police officer called Hiran late in the evening of March 4 pretending to be a police officer named Tawde from Malwani, and asked to meet him along Ghodbunder Road in Thane.

On March 8, NIA took over the probe into three separate FIRs registered in connection with the alleged theft of the SUV, planting of the explosives-laden vehicle outside Antilia and the murder of its owner.