Sachin Waze, a dismissed police officer and the man behind the planting of explosives in a vehicle near Mukesh Ambani’s residence on February 25, had planned to extort money from the industrialist, as per the charge sheet submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The charge sheet that invokes the anti-terror law UAPA, as well as stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code, says that the intent was clearly to terrorize wealthy and prosperous individuals and extort money by inducing fear of dire consequences. The plot allegedly involved five serving and retired cops, including erstwhile encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma. They had roped in five others, some of whom had long criminal records as per the charge sheet.
To mislead investigators, there was a message posted on the Telegram app reportedly showing terror outfit Jaish-ul-Hind taking responsibility for planting the explosives. Waze plotted the murder of the vehicle owner, Mansukh Hiran. The charge sheet also speaks about Hiran’s murder in depth.
In court proceedings, the prosecution had mentioned that Rs 45 lakh was paid to eliminate Hiran. On March 4, Mane(gang member) called Hiran saying he was Inspector Tawde and asked him to meet him on Ghodbunder road in Thane. He drove Hiran to Dwarka Hotel and handed over Shellar(gang member).
In the car, Mothkuri who was seated in the last row grabbed Hiran and stuffed his mouth with handkerchiefs, said Soni who was driving the car. They drove the vehicle then to Kasheli bridge in Thane and threw the body in the creek and went to a dhaba nearby to have dinner.
Waze and his subordinate API Kazi also took away digital video recorders showing CCTV footage of a housing society near Awaze’s own housing society. He dumped the digital evidence with phones used by the gang.
