Hours after Maharashtra Home Department issued an order to transfer the case related to Hiren’s death to ATS, the National Investigation Agency has been called in Monday to handle the probe related to the recovery of explosives from a car parked near Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai. The central agency is in the process of re-registering the Antila bomb scare case, the agency said.
The probe into Mansukh Hiren‘s death case, however, still remains with the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
Investigation of Mansukh Hiren death case will remain with the ATS and the case related to the recovery of explosives in a car near Mukesh Ambani’s house will be probed by NIA, clarifies ATS
— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2021
Prior to this development, the ATS was entrusted with the responsibility to probe the death case of Mansukh Hiren as well as the investigation into the case related to the gelatins found outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence, which is connected to Mansukh Hiren, as he was the owner of explosive-laden SUV which was recovered in the proximity of industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Carmichael road in Mumbai in the last week of February.
On Friday the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had announced that the investigation of both the cases including the Antilia case and the death of Hiren had been transferred to ATS.
Mansukh Hiren was murdered: Vinod, Hiren’s elder son
Hiren who was an important link to the ‘Antilia’ bomb episode went missing on Thursday. His body was later recovered from Retibunder Creek in Thane on Friday morning.
Initially, it was believed to be a case of accidental death by suicide at Mumbra police station in Thane, but later it was revealed that handkerchiefs were found stuffed in Hiren’s mouth.
While talking to Indian Express, Vinod, Hiren’s elder son, said it was murder. “He knew swimming well, and he would not end his life by jumping into a creek,” Vinod said.
The doctors who conducted post-mortem at Chhatrapati Shivaji hospital in Kalwa reserved the opinion on the cause of death. They reported that there were no external injuries on the body.
How Hiren got linked to Antila bomb scare case
On February 26, police found an abandoned car outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence in which they found gelatin sticks. The police found several fake number plates in the car, one of which was similar to the car used by a security officer at Ambani’s house. Based on the chassis number, police reached out to Mansukh Hiren, who owned the car. In his statement, Hiren told police that on February 17, he had to leave the car on the road as it faced a technical snag, and he was getting late for a meeting. When he returned the next day to pick up his car, it was missing from the spot. He had registered a complaint at Vikhroli police station.
Former CM Devendra Fadnavis had stated in the assembly that the owner of the Scorpio car, which was used to plant gelatin sticks and a threat letter outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai, was in touch with a mobile phone number that is registered in the name of Mumbai Police officer and ‘encounter specialist’ Sachin Vaze.
