Court rejects discharge plea of ex-cop Pradeep Sharma

A special NIA court rejected Pradeep Sharma's discharge plea in the Mansukh Hiran murder case, citing strong circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime.

Mansukh Hiran murder case:

Court rejects discharge plea of ex-cop Pradeep Sharma

MUMBAI: A special NIA court on Saturday rejected the discharge plea of former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, arrested in connection with the Antillia explosives scare case and the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.

Sharma is accused of helping his former colleague and the main accused in the Antillia bomb scare case, Sachin Waze, in committing the murder of Hiran, whose green-coloured Mahindra Scorpio vehicle was found parked near Antillia on February 25, 2021, with 20 loose gelatin sticks and a note threatening to kill the Ambani family. Hiran was subsequently found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5, 2021.

The NIA alleged that dismissed police officer Sachin Waze, who at the time headed the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), had planted the explosives-laden vehicle and wanted to eliminate Hiran to avoid attention on him. As per the charge sheet, Sharma is accused of hiring contract killers to eliminate Hiran, for which Waze paid him. The NIA had claimed that Waze wanted to eliminate Hiran since the latter refused to take responsibility for the bomb scare and knew about the whole conspiracy.

The prosecution argued that the confessional statement of Manish Soni, who was allegedly involved in the murder of Hiran, is self-explanatory as Soni said that he along with two other accused ran away to Nepal at the behest of Sharma.

The discharge plea was submitted by Sharma on the grounds that there is no material to prove that he was involved in the planting of the gelatin sticks. Sharma’s advocate relied on his CDR (Call Detail Records) of February 17 to show that the officer reached Dockyard road at 8:10pm and went to P’Dmello road. He went to Mazgaon to attend a wedding, contended the defence.

The defence maintained that no case is made out to frame charges against the applicant. Relying on the confessional statement of two witnesses, the defence stated that Hiran was a bold person who cooperated with Waze in the case.

The court took note of the contradictions between the CDR records and the IPDR (Internet Protocol Detail Report), while observing that the IPDR records show that Waze and Sharma were present on the same location on February 17, the day when the vehicle was abandoned on the Vikhroli highway by Hiran.

Special sessions judge AM Patil said, “At this stage, mere CDR is not sufficient to conclude that on February 17, 2021, the applicant and accused 1 (Waze) were not present on the location where Mansukh Hiran had left his Scorpio at Vikhroli highway and handed over the keys to accused 1 near GPO Mumbai.”

The court stated that the statements of various police officers, who acted as witnesses, show that Waze and Sharma met each other on March 2, 2021, March 3, 2021, and March 5, 2021. “It is found from the statements that Sachin Waze had handed over the bag containing money to Pradip Sharma, which he used, thereafter, in the murder of Mansukh Hiran,” the court said.

The court further said that the entire case of prosecution is based on circumstantial evidence. Sharma and Waze were in contact with each other since February 17, 2021, prior to the gelatine stick-planting incident, observed the court. “For that purpose, the best evidence of the prosecution is in the form of IPDR,” it said, adding that the confessional statements of Soni and the witnesses are material pieces of evidence which cannot be dismissed.

“In the present case in hand, there is a larger conspiracy hatched by the accused persons,” said the court. “At this juncture, it cannot be said that the witnesses and the documentary evidence are fabricated with a view to implicate the accused,” it contended and rejected the discharge plea of Sharma.

Sharma was arrested by the NIA on June 17, 2021. The case, which was transferred from the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) to the crime branch, was later transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in March 2021 in the aftermath of the murder of Hiran. A few days later, the NIA (National Investigation Agency) took over the investigation on the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Meanwhile, the court also rejected the bail of co-accused Anand Jadhav, who was arrested by the NIA in June 2021 for his alleged role in the murder of Hiran.