The National Investigation Agency (NIA) detained former Mumbai police officer Pradeep Sharma on Thursday in connection with the investigation into the Antilia bomb scare and the murder of Mansukh Hiran. Sharma and two other people detained for the same crime were brought before a local court, which ordered them to be held in NIA custody until June 28.
His Mumbai home had been raided by the agency earlier this morning. The central security personnel sealed off roads leading to the building in JB Nagar, where Sharma resides, and public movement was limited in the vicinity.
The Mumbai police also dispatched officers to the scene after receiving information about the operation. Sharma had previously been interrogated by the NIA for two days at its headquarters in south Mumbai as part of the investigation. Pradeep Sharma is a member of the Mumbai Police Department’s “encounter specialists.” He’s also reported to be the tutor of Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze, who was also detained in connection with the Ambani terror threat. Param Bir Singh, who was their reporting DCP in the 1990s, is also said to be close to the pair.
Retired police officers Sachin Waze, Riyazuddin Kazi, Sunil Mane, former police constable Vinayak Shinde, and cricket bookie Naresh Gour had already been detained by the central investigative agency for their participation in the case.In this case, Santosh Shelar and Anand Jadhav were just detained.
According to the NIA, both of them were reportedly involved in a plot to put explosives in an SUV near tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s home. On February 25, the SUV was discovered abandoned near Ambani’s Antilia home in south Mumbai. Mansukh Hiran, a Thane-based businessman who was in possession of the car, was discovered dead in a Mumbra stream on March 5.
The NIA took over two connected cases that were previously investigated by Maharashtra Police.
