NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the security scare incident near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house and the death of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran has led to the recovery of suspicious documents which have added a new layer of mystery to the case.
NIA officials said the documents mention payments, suspected to be "bribe money", being made to certain government officials as well as people in the Mumbai police department, PTI reported.
The NIA is scrutinising the documents unearthed during a raid Thursday at a club at Girgaum in South Mumbai to further probe the role of now-suspended police officer Sachin Waze, officials said.
Waze is currently in NIA custody for his alleged role in planting an explosives-laden SUV near Ambani's south Mumbai residence as well as the death of Hiran.
The NIA said that one of the documents recovered by it shows the name of the office and the staff by designation with an amount mentioned next to their names.
The agency added that the same has been tabulated month-wise, with officials now suspecting that the amount could be the bribe money paid every month.
The officials said that if needed the documents would be shared with Income Tax or CBI authorities for further probe as the NIA is mandated to probe anti-terror cases only.
They said the club was frequented by Waze who had even got his aides Naresh Gor and co-accused Vinayak Shinde employed there. Both of them are currently in NIA custody.
The NIA had on Thursday also recovered documents pertaining to SIM cards procured through Gor for his personal use. Gor is alleged to have procured the SIM cards from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and these were handed over to Waze through Shinde, the officials said.
One of these SIM cards was used by Waze to give a call to Hiran, which turned out to be the last call before the businessman was killed.
The body of Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV used in the security scare incident, was found in a creek in the Mumbra town of the neighbouring Thane district on March 5.
Waze is allegedly to be behind the murder of Hiran after reports started surfacing that the case may be handed over to the central agency for probe.
Initial investigations suggested that Hiran was called to a place where he was made unconscious with the help of some drugs before being smothered to death.
His vehicle was found outside Ambani's house in Mumbai on February 25 with gelatin sticks and a threat note.
On Saturday, a special NIA court in Mumbai extended the custody of Waze till April 7.
During the proceedings, the NIA told the court that Waze had a joint account and a locker with an accomplice at the Development Credit Bank (DCB), Versova.
It alleged that Rs 26.5 lakh was in the account on March 8.
However, incriminating material and cash were removed from the locker on March 18 — five days after Waze’s arrest on March 13, said additional solicitor general Anil Singh, representing the agency.
Among other submissions made in the court, Singh said a diary was made available to NIA on April by a South Mumbai club, which has an amount mentioned in it.
"A huge amount was received by him (Waze) and this was noted in the diary. Why would such a huge amount be given by a club owner or person running the club,” Singh submitted.
NIA said through Waze’s disclosure statement, they had recovered several incriminating materials such as a laptop, DVR, CPU, printer and number plates from Mithi river.
It said the articles were in a “destructive state” and it needed to ascertain their contents, the purpose they served and why they were destroyed.
(With inputs from PTI)