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Encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma quizzed by NIA for 9 hours in Mumbai
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has been probing the Antilia explosives scare and the murder case of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran, questioned former police officer and encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma for the second consecutive day at its south Mumbai office
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has been probing the Antilia explosives scare and the murder case of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran, questioned former police officer and encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma for the second consecutive day at its south Mumbai office. Sharma was interrogated for over nine hours and left NIA office at 10.30pm.
On Wednesday, he was questioned for around seven hours.
NIA has recorded the statements of around 45 people, including former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh and two deputy commissioners as well as a dozen cops from the crime intelligence unit, in connection with the Antilia case.
Singh’s statement was recorded for around three hours on Wednesday. NIA recorded his statement as the main accused in the case, Sachin Vaze, who was then in-charge of the crime intelligence unit (CIU), was allegedly directly reporting to Singh. Soon after the explosives-laden Scorpio was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, the case was transferred to CIU, and Vaze was made an investigating officer.
Singh has been appointed as the director general of home guards after he was shunted out from the post of police chief on March 17, after NIA claimed that Vaze was the mastermind behind planting the SUV and seized an Innova of Mumbai Police, which was allegedly trailing the Scorpio on February 25.
During an investigation, NIA found that Sharma had visited the Mumbai Police commissioner’s office on March 2 and had allegedly met Vaze
in CIU office.
NIA has been questioning him to find out if he was a part of the conversation with Vaze and Hiran, when the suspended cop had reportedly asked the trader to take responsibility of planting the explosives in his Scorpio.
Hiran, who was allegedly not ready to accept the responsibility, went missing on the evening of March 4, after he left his house to meet an officer
near Ghodbunder Road in Thane. A day later, his body was found near Retibunder in Mumbra.
The probe agency is now conducting an investigation to find out if Vaze was involved in Hiran’s murder and whether he took the help of others to execute his plan to frame or eliminate Hiran. Apart from Vaze, former police constable Vinayak Shinde and bookie Naresh Gor are also in NIA’s custody for allegedly providing logistic support in Hiran’s murder.
Meanwhile, NIA took Vaze to the state-run Sir J J Hospital for a routine check up on Thursday morning.
Before being reinstated in the police force in last June, Vaze had a heart blockage, which he had not got treated.
However, sources close to the investigation said that during his check-up, Vaze did not have any problem while breathing.
