Encounter specialist cop Pradeep Sharma arrested over Antilia bomb scare

NIA officials said Pradeep Sharma had a role to play in the “larger conspiracy” in which 20 loose gelatin sticks were planted in a Scorpio parked outside billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s South Mumbai residence on February 25

In a major breakthrough in the Antilia explosives scare and the Mansukh Hiran murder case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested former Mumbai Police officer Pradeep Sharma after an early morning raid at his residence on Thursday.

Pradeep Sharma is the fifth policeman to be arrested by the NIA, which has so far held 10 persons in connection with this case.

NIA officials said Sharma had a role to play in the “larger conspiracy” in which 20 loose gelatin sticks were planted in a Scorpio parked outside billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s South Mumbai residence on February 25, following which the body of a Thane industrialist to whom the car belonged, turned up in a creek on the outskirts of Mumbai on March 5.

The federal agency on Thursday also arrested two more men in connection with Hiran’s death -- Satish Mothukari (also known as Tanni or Vicky Baba) and Manish Soni -- and produced the three before a special court seeking their custody.

The agency told the court that Mothukari and Soni along with Santosh Shelar and Anand Jadhav – the NIA had arrested the latter two last week -- had smothered Hiran in a red Tavera car on Ghodbunder Road in Thane and dumped his body in creek near Mumbra, at the behest of Sharma and former Mumbai cop Sachin Vaze. The special court remanded the trio to NIA custody till June 28.

The NIA arrested Vaze on March 13 and claimed that he was the mastermind behind the explosives scare and the murder. Vaze, currently in custody, has denied the charges in the court.

During the Thursday raid, NIA officials seized a printer, a computer and a laptop from Sharma’s Andheri residence. They also recovered an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

“The NIA conducted a raid at his residence located in JB Nagar in Mumbai’s Andheri (West) around 6am and the operation continued for several hours. The officials recovered some incriminating documents from his house,” news agency PTI quoted an NIA official as saying.

An NIA team had picked up Sharma from Amby Valley near the hill station of Lonavla on Wednesday night and brought him to its office in south Mumbai for questioning, an official said. Sharma is the fifth policeman to be arrested by the NIA, which has so far held 10 persons in connection with this case.

Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves told the court that Soni drove the car while the Shelar, Jadhav and Mothukari smothered Hiran in the car and then dumped his body in creek. Gonsalves said that they informed Vaze and Sharma after the murder and received a large sum for murdering Hiran. Some of that award has been recovered, the NIA prosecutor said.

“Everything was done at the instance of Vaze and Sharma,” Gonsalves said and added that the NIA has everything to prove their case. He said that Mothukari and Soni confessed to the murder, while Shelar showed NIA officers the spot where Hiran was murdered. The agency has seized the Tavera and found some blood stains in the vehicle. The DNA has been collected and sent for forensic examination.

“Sharma is an ex-cop but he roams with a revolver which is unlicensed. Why was he contacted by the murderers?” said Gonsalves. Meanwhile, Sharma said he had been framed. “If I was really involved, would I be sleeping in my house? I am a retired police officer,” he said.

Advocate Sudeep Pasbola who represented Sharma opposed the remand plea and said that Sharma was called by NIA twice and interrogated for about 10 hours. There was no material to support the claims made by the federal agency, he said. Sharma said the revolver was purchased by him in 1997 and was licenced, but the license was not renewed.

(With inputs from agencies)