The Bombay High Court on Thursday cancelled the bail granted to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze, an accused in the 2021 ‘Antilia’ bomb scare case.
A bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale allowed the appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the case, against a special court order granting bail to the former Assistant Police Inspector (API).
“The impugned order is quashed and set aside,” the high court said.
Waze, a key accused in the 2021 Antilia bomb scare and killing of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran, was granted bail by the special court in September.
The NIA immediately moved the HC and sought an urgent stay on the order. The HC had then granted an interim stay on the bail, due to which Waze, booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), continued to remain lodged at the Thane Central Prison.
On February 25, 2021, an SUV packed with explosives was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, ‘Antilia’, in south Mumbai.
Businessman Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV before it was allegedly stolen, was found dead in a creek in neighbouring Thane city on March 5, 2021.
The probe agency alleged that Waze, who was then an API with the Mumbai crime branch, himself parked the explosives-laden SUV as part of a conspiracy. Waze was arrested by the NIA on March 13, 2021, in the combined case of the Antilia bomb scare and Hiran’s killing.
He was subsequently made an accused in a corruption case being probed by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate. Waze has already been granted bail in the corruption case.
The special court, while granting bail to Waze in the Antilia case, had said the NIA failed to establish a prima facie case of terrorism under the stringent UAPA law against him, and that there was no evidence on record to prove Ambani’s family was terrorised by his alleged act.
The NIA, in its appeal, sought the HC to quash the special court order, terming it as “illegal and bad in law” and, by way of interim relief, sought for it to be stayed.
The central agency had further claimed that the special court was “totally wrong” in granting relief to the dismissed cop as he intended to create terror and was also accused of murder.