Antilia bomb case: Sachin Vaze parked explosive-laden SUV to regain clout, says NIA chargesheet

The chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Antilia bomb scare case mentions that the dismissed Mumbai Police API Sachin Vaze parked the explosive-laden SUV in front of industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house -- Antilia to regain his clout as a supercop. It further mentions that Vaze was reinstated in the police service and posted as in-charge of Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Crime Branch, Mumbai. He was allotted office chamber in the office of the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), 4th floor, Crime Branch, Mumbai.

The chargesheet filed by the central body runs into 10 pages against ten accused—Sachin Vaze, former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, police inspector Sunil Mane, dimissed API Riyazuddin Qazi, dismissed constable Vinayak Shinde, Anand Jadhav, Manish Soni, Santosh Shelar, Satish Mothkuri and Naresh Gor. The NIA has taken approximately 200 witness statements into account. Of these, 20 are protected witnesses.

“Investigation has further revealed that, Sachin Vaze being incarcerated for a long time wanted to regain his clout of an ace detective/encounter specialist. Hence he conspired with others to place the Scorpio vehicle laden with gelatin sticks (explosive) and threat note addressed to industrialist Shri Mukesh Ambani and his family and parked the vehicle near the latter’s residence, in order to put Ambani family into fear of death and to commit the terrorist act,” the NIA chargesheet stated.

Besides Vaze's motive, the chargesheet also laid bare the plot to kill Mansukh Hiren. According to the chargesheet, former Mumbai police encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma was tasked with killing Mansukh Hiren. In February this year, a Scorpio car with 20 gelatin sticks and a thread note addressed to the Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and his family was parked near Ambani's residence by Vaze and other accused. Vaze planned all this to become a top cop and get a huge sum of money from the Ambani family.

As the case began getting more limelight and senior officers started investigation, Sachin Vaze pressured Hiren to take the responsibility for the crime and also assured Hiren that he would bail him out. Vaze's plan fell on its face when Hiren refused to take the responsibility for this crime.

Vaze knew that if Hiren was questioned by any investigative agency, he would tell them everything and pose a huge threat to him and other partners in crime. Following this, Pradeep Sharma contacted Santosh Shelar and offered him money to kill Hiren, which Shelar accepted.

Vaze then called Mansukh Hiren to the Mumbai Police headquarters on March 2. Pradeep Sharma and dismissed PI Sunil Mane were present here so that they could identify Hiren. On the same day, Sachin Vaze had also called an advocate to draft the complaint on behalf of Hiren, which was manipulated by Vaze. This draft said that Hiren was mentally disturbed due to harassment by investigative agencies.

Next day, Vaze went to PS Foundation’s Andheri East office to meet Pradeep Sharma, where Vaze handed Sharma a bag containing huge amount of cash. Vaze also provided Sunil Mane with benami SIM cards to call Mansukh Hiren to a location where the plan to eliminate Hiren could be executed. Contract killers then arranged one red car and Sunil Mane got a white car to pick up Hiren. On the day of the crime, Vaze conducted false raids at Tipsy bar to stay away from the crime.

Edited by Mehak Agarwal

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