‘Convicted cop Vinayak Shinde executed Hiran Mansukh’s murder’

The ATS on March 21 arrested two men, Vinayak Shinde, a convicted constable on parole in an encounter case, and bookie Naresh Gor in the murder of the 48-year-old spare parts dealer

Preliminary investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran’s murder has revealed that former police constable Vinayak Shinde was the one who had called the 48-year-old auto spare parts trader to Ghodbunder Road on March 4, the day Hiran went missing.

(Praful Gangurde/HT)

“Our probe has confirmed that while [Sachin] Vaze was the mastermind, but the murder of Hiran was executed by Shinde. Shinde had called Hiran to Ghodbunder Road on March 4,” said a senior ATS officer.

The ATS on March 21 arrested two men, Vinayak Shinde, a convicted constable on parole in an encounter case, and bookie Naresh Gor in the murder of the 48-year-old spare parts dealer, who is linked to the SUV that was found parked outside Mukesh Ambani’s Antilia residence last month containing 20 loose sticks of gelatin and a threatening letter addressed to the industrialist.

The state investigation agency also named suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, currently in custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his role in planting the explosives outside Antilia, as the prime accused in the case.

The Union home ministry on Saturday handed over the Hiran murder case to NIA, but ATS officials, as of Monday, were still sharing details of their own probe.“Vaze is a prime accused in the Hiran murder case. He had played a key role. During the probe, ATS found that Gor had provided five SIM cards to API Vaze and Shinde for the crime. Shinde used to help Vaze in his illegal activities,” an ATS officer had said earlier, claiming that their arrests was a major breakthrough.

ATS investigators said Shinde was in regular touch with Vaze ever since he got out on parole in May 2020 and, according to ATS remand application, Shinde was looking after Vaze’s “illegal activities” in Mumbai and Thane area.

An ATS officer said Shinde, who was convicted for the encounter killing of Lakhan Bhaiya in 2006, had called Hiran late in the evening of March 4 pretending to be a police officer named Tawde from Malwani, and had asked to meet him somewhere along Godbunder Road in Thane.

In a statement to the ATS, Hiran’s wife Vimla had said that an officer by the name of Tawde had called Hiran on March 4, prompting her husband to leave his home at 8.30pm. When he did not return, she tried his phone at 11.30pm but found it to be switched off. The following morning, she filed a missing person report.

The ATS team on Monday took Shinde and Gor to the creek where Hiran’s body was found, and also conducted a search at a godown in Majiwada area, believed to be of a firm owned by Vaze.“Today, we took Shinde to the spot where Hiran’s body was found at Mumbra, then to his house in Kalwa, Vaze’s house in Saket, a car décor shop and a godown at Majiwada and Bhoomi World complex in Bhiwandi to trace Shinde’s entire movement on March 4 and 5,” the officer said. “We suspect that Shinde made Hiran unconscious in the godown by administrating chloroform and later dumped him in the creek,” the officer added.

Investigators on Monday also took Shinde to his residence in Kalwa and seized a printer, suspected to be used to print the threatening note left behind in the explosive-laden SUV abandoned near Ambani’s residence.

Another ATS team on Monday apprehended a man from Gujarat who had allegedly supplied some SIM cards obtained on the basis of bogus documents to co-accused Naresh Gor, a cricket bookie.

One of the SIM supplied by Gor was purportedly used by Shinde to stay in touch with other accused in the case, said the official, adding that the ATS team that has gone to Gujarat has also recovered 14 SIM cards.

Several senior ATS officials who are part of the investigating team including additional commissioner Shivdeep Lande, DCP Rajkumar Shinde and ACP Shripad Kale, senior police inspector Daya Nayak were in Thane for almost the entire day.