Mansukh Hiran: The mysterious death that has gripped Mumbai

On February 25, an SUV with loose sticks of Gelatin was found parked outside Mukesh Ambani’s house. It was traced back to a Thane auto parts businessman, but on March 5, his body washed up ashore in a creek outside Mumbai. Here’s what we know so far

Maharashtra leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis claimed in the Assembly on Tuesday that Mansukh Hiran, a 48-year-old auto spare parts businessman, was likely murdered and demanded the arrest of a police officer of the Mumbai crime branch.

Shops adjoining that of Mansukh Hiran’s will remain closed till all the rituals were completed, as a mark of respect. (Praful Gangurde/ HT photo)

Fadnavis based his claims on the statement that Hiran’s wife, 43-year-old Vimla, gave to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) investigators two days after her husband’s body washed up on the Reti Bunder creek in Mumbra, Thane district. Vimla told investigators that she was certain her husband had been murdered, and that she suspected Vaze had a hand in it.

Till he went missing on the night of March 4, Hiran cooperated with the police who questioned him repeatedly after an SUV that he had been driving for three years and reported stolen on February 18, was found parked outside Antilia, the house in which billionaire Mukesh Ambani lives with his family. The car had 20 sticks of gelatin (no detonator or timer) and a threatening letter addressed to Ambani.

Who owned the SUV parked outside Ambani’s house? Who is Vaze? What were the events that preceded Hiran’s death? Why does Vimla think that her husband was murdered and did not drown? Read our explainer of what we know so far.

A Scorpio outside Antilia

On February 25, police sub-inspector Amit Kadam was on duty as station house officer at Gamdevi police station when he received a call around 3pm. Bharat Patil, a security officer at industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, Antilia, informed Kadam of a Mahindra Scorpio SUV parked on Carmichael Road near Shikhar Kunj building. What piqued their suspicion, Patil told Kadam, was that the registration number of the vehicle was the same as that of a Range Rover that is part of Nita Ambani’s security convoy.

By the time Kadam reached the spot with a constable, Ambani’s security personnel had also called the Mumbai police control room, after confirming that the vehicle did not belong to them.

Kadam called the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) team, which examined the vehicle with the help of sniffer dogs and bomb detection equipment. The teams found a blue sack with a Mumbai Indians logo on the co-driver’s seat left seat, (an Indian Premier League team owned by the Ambanis) which contained 20 loose gelatin sticks and a threatening letter addressed to the Ambani family.

Two identical sets of three different registration number plates were kept beneath the rear seat of the vehicle. Bharat Patil, the security officer at Antilia revealed that all the three registration numbers belonged to vehicles registered in the name of Reliance Industries Limited.

The BDDS squad and the Gamdevi police found that the plates that carried the engine number and body number of the vehicle were removed, and even the chassis number embossed on the car near right front wheel was wiped out. Clearly someone had gone into great trouble to remove traces of all identification from the car.

The same day, the Gamdevi police registered an offence in connection with the incidence against unknown persons under sections 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance), 465 (punishment for forgery), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal), 506(2) (criminal intimidation, if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4(a)(b) (1) (punishment for attempt to cause explosion, or for making or keeping explosive with intent to endanger life or property) of the Indian Explosives Act, 1908.

Other police officers including senior police inspector Rampiyare Rajbhar of Gamdevi police station, Rajiv Jain deputy commissioner of police, Zone 2 and a crime branch team including assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze of the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU), arrived at the scene. Vaze was later to be made the lead investigator in this case.

A BDDS officer present there that day said on the condition of anonymity that the 2.5 kg gelatin was enough to trigger a low intensity blast, but that the gelatin sticks found in the SUV were not in the form of an assembled explosive device. The mark of a Nagpur-based company found on the gelatin sticks indicated that the explosive was procured from Nagpur where it is commonly sold for mining purposes.

At 5pm, the SUV was towed to Gamdevi police station at Girgaon Chowpatty, and was later shifted to Yellow Gate police station premises.

The real owner of the SUV

Shortly after Hiran’s body washed up in a creek in Thane district on March 5, his family stopped talking to the media. Till then, Hiran — who left his home at night on March 4 never to return — Vimla; brother, Vinod (50), and older son, Meet (21), had understood and even addressed the scrutiny that accompanied the discovery that the Scorpio, found parked outside Ambani’s home on February 25, had been traced back to them.

On March 7, Vimla gave a statement to the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) investigating team, in which she said that she was certain that her husband had been murdered. She also said that Sachin Vaze, the police officer from CIU who went to Antilia on February 25, was probably involved in the death.

Based on her statement, the ATS filed a case of murder against unknown persons, and began to treat Hiran’s death not as a case of suicide or accidental drowning.

It was this statement, among others, that caused uproar in the state assembly when leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis brought up Hiran’s death on the penultimate day of the House in session.

In her statement, Vimla told the investigators that the vehicle belonged to a certain Dr Peter Newton who was known to her deceased husband. The Scorpio, however, was in possession of the Hirans for the past three years. Hiran, who knew Vaze well, lent him the Scorpio in November 2020. Vaze’s driver dropped off the car at Hiran’s shop in Thane, on February 5, 2021.

On February 17, at around 6.30pm, Hiran took the vehicle heading towards south Mumbai, the statement read. However, its steering was not smooth which prompted Hiran to park the car on the side of the road, and continue his journey in a taxi. The following day, the statement added, Hiran took a mechanic with him to bring the vehicle back to his shop. However, when he reached the spot, he found that the car had been stolen following which he lodged a complaint with Vikhroli police station.

In fact, it was Hiran’s FIR that gave the investigators their first break in the case.

What initial investigation revealed

On February 26, home minister Anil Deshmukh released a video statement stating that the Mumbai crime branch would investigate the case. Vaze, who heads the CIU, took the lead in the investigation.

But the investigations had already kicked off the previous evening. The Mumbai crime branch formed several teams apart from the CIU including officials of unit 2, unit 3, and property cell. They were assigned different tasks such as checking CCTV camera footage, making enquiries about stolen, gathering footage from toll points, among other things.

The police checked the footage of CCTV cameras installed outside a departmental store called Vijay Store, just across the road from where the Scorpio was parked. They found that two vehicles, the Scorpio and an Innova, coming from Peddar Road and heading towards Altamount Road, reached Carmichael Road an hour past midnight on the intervening night of February 24 and 25. The Scorpio stopped opposite Vijay Store, and the Innova stopped, a few metres behind it.

“The Scorpio driver was seen sitting for about two hours,” store owner Rajesh Singh who also saw the footage, said. “There was hardly any movement inside or outside the vehicle. Two hours later, the Innova moved ahead slowly, but it is not clear as to when the driver of the Scorpio came out of the car and where he went.”

It is likely that the Scorpio driver left the car from the left hand side rear door [an angle that would not be caught in the CCTV camera], the police claimed.

Investigators further found that the Innova had entered the city at 1.20pm on February 24, from the Mulund toll naka. After leaving Carmichael Road, it returned to the toll point at 3.05am on February 25 morning. Police claimed they could not track the Innova after that as the CCTVs in Thane area captured blurred images due to night hours. The registration number of the Innova car was also found to be a fake and the police suspected that this vehicle too was stolen.

During investigations, the police came across a report filed in Vikhroli about a green coloured Scorpio that had gone missing. The police placed a call to Hiran, asking him to visit the CIU office located in the police headquarters near Crawford Market.

“On February 25, an ATS official named Salvi called my husband and asked him to meet him in the building compound. My husband and son went down and met Salvi, who showed them a picture on his phone of an SUV found near Ambani’s house. My husband identified the vehicle and also informed him that he had filed a complaint with the Vikroli police station that it had been stolen. He also showed the FIR copy to him,” Vimla’s statement to the ATS, read.

The same night, ATS officer Shivaji Chavan visited their residence and took Hiran to the Vikroli ATS unit. There, he was shown some CCTV footage. He was brought back to his house at 6.30am on February 26, the statement added.

Later that day, Hiran reached the CIU office, where the police recorded his statement. Emerging from the building, Hiran spoke to mediapersons and told them that the car was indeed his, but it had not been in his possession for over a week.

Between February 25 and March 4, when Hiran left his home in the evening, he was questioned by several police officers, Vimla’s statement said.

Vimla’s statement to the ATS

On March 2, Hiran wrote a letter to various authorities complaining that he was being harassed by police of various units and police stations and a particular media person, who kept calling repeatedly.

The following day, Hiran told her that Vaze had advised him to get arrested in case and he would be out on bail within a few days, the statement read.

On March 4, Hiran returned from his shop at 8.30pm and told her that he was going to meet a police officer named Tawade, somewhere along Ghodbunder Road.

Vimla told the investigating team that when she tried calling her husband at 11pm, his mobile phone was switched off. Later at night, her son spoke to Hiran’s brother, Vinod to inform him that Hiran had not returned home. Vinod called Vaze, who reportedly expressed surprise at the meeting and informed Vinod that Hiran had not mentioned that he was going to meet Tawde.

The following morning, Meet and Vinod lodged a missing person’s report at Naupada police station. Hiran’s body was found by fishermen on March 5 around 10.30am. The Mumbra Police handed over the body to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Hospital in Kalwa and filed an Accidental Death report. Prima facie, the police said, it seemed that Hiran had died by suicide. But Vimla contested that claim. In her statement, she told the ATS team that Hiran was too good a swimmer to have drowned. Besides, the body had no identifying markers on it — his wallet, gold chain, gold ring studded with a pukhraj stone and wrist watch were not found on him when his body was recovered. What’s more, his body was found in a creek at Mumbra with handkerchiefs stuffed into his mouth, which was also covered by a scarf.

The missing person’s report filed by Hiran’s family helped identify the body. Later, on March 6, Vimla gave a statement to the press — Hiran was cooperating with the police; there was no reason why he would try and die by suicide. She demanded an investigation into his death. The family asked for another autopsy to be conducted, as the earlier one released a post mortem report that said the cause of death was inconclusive, and the viscera needed to be tested further. Hiran’s family showed the report to four doctor friends of the family.

“Our doctors said his lungs were not filled with water and were soft. His death happened 10 to 12 hours before he was found dead at the creek. Therefore to investigate further we have asked to preserve his lungs and demanded a diatoms test which established death by drowning,” Vinod told the press.

Later that evening, the family cremated Mansukh Hiran.

On March 7, an ATS team questioned the family for over three hours and filed an FIR against unknown persons for the murder of Mansukh Hiran.

“Taking into consideration all the above circumstances, I am sure that my husband was murdered,” the last few lines of Vimla’s statement read. “I suspect Sachin Vaze could have committed the said murder.”

Sachin Vaze did not respond to repeated calls and messages. The story will be updated when and if he responds.

Mark of respect

On March 8, the family organised a prayer meet for Hiran, which several people attended. His community remembered his as a helpful neighbour and a musician who loved to play the guitar.

A resident of the society where the Hirans live said, on condition of anonymity, that Hiran had taught the neighbour’s 12-year-old son how to swim. “Mansukh often taught children how to swim. He loved children and got along well with them. He was always so happy when he played the guitar and he would always encourage children to get involved in different hobbies.”

Ashok Badla, Hiran’s relative said, “Mansukh was involved in various sport activity and always took out time to play old medleys on his guitar. This was one of his favourite pastimes.” Badla said that Hiran was also deeply involved in charity work offered by the Terapanth community, a group within the Jain community.

At his place of business, shopkeepers downed their shutters for five days as a mark of respect for their friend.

“He was like an older brother to all of us. He taught us how to expand our business. We met each other daily during the day and spoke on various issues. Around 10 of us collectively took the decision to keep our shops closed as a mark of respect till the death rituals were completed,” said D Anand, whose car accessories shop adjoins Hiran’s.

Kamlesh Jain, another businessman and friend recalled how Hiran had helped one of his employees set up a business in his native village. “He used to encourage his staff to start something of their own. Who trains their own employees in different skills to help them set up their own business? The employee could not control his emotions after he learned of Mansukh’s death.”