A special court on Monday extended the custody of two accused arrested last week by National Investigation Agency (NIA) till Friday in the case related to the security scare at industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilla in February and the murder shortly thereafter of businessman Mansukh Hiran, in whose Scorpio car explosives were found parked outside Ambani residence.
The accused Sathosh Shelar and Anand Jadhav, the NIA claims, were present in the vehicle in which Hiran was murdered. The NIA court also heard the central agency’s plea for custody of dismissed police inspector Sunil Mane, who was remanded in judicial custody by the court on 1 May, after being arrested by the NIA on 23 April. After the arrest of Shelar and Jadhav, the NIA had approached the court last week for Mane’s custody, claiming he needed to be confronted with the two. The NIA sought Mane’s custody for five days.
Appearing for Mane, advocate Aditya Gore opposed the plea for his further custodial interrogation. In court last week, after the arrest of retired encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and two others, the NIA had, while seeking custody of the trio, told the court that Shelar and Jadhav were present in a red Tavera car in which Hiran was murdered.
He was smothered, the agency had stated, by two men arrested with Sharma - Satish Mothkuri and Manish Soni. The murder was committed at the behest of Sharma and now dismissed Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, NIA alleged.
Special judge Prashant R. Sitre had granted the agency custody of the trio till 28 June when they were produced the same day after their arrest.
