The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed an application before a special court seeking further police custody of dismissed police inspector Sunil Mane, who is presently in judicial custody in the Antilia bomb scare - Mansukh Hiran murder case.
The agency has said in its plea that it requires his further custody to confront him with two persons it has arrested in the case - Santhosh Shelar and Anand Jadhav. The duo who had been produced before the special NIA court on Monday are currently under custodial interrogation till 21 June.
Shelar and Jadhav are reportedly suspected of playing a role in the conspiracy to plant the explosives in the Scorpio found outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence on 25 February. The NIA also suspects their role in the murder of Hiran whose body was found in a Thane creek on 5 March.
Mane had been one of the four policemen arrested in the case including now dismissed Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze. While seeking his custody for interrogation earlier, the agency had claimed Mane’s role in disposing of the body of Hiran and calls between him and Vaze before the murder. The agency suspects he was part of the plan to murder Hiran and claimed that five calls were exhanged between him and Vaze in his regard.
Recently, when the stipulated 90 days to file the chargesheet in the case had neared, the NIA had sought before the court an additional 90 days time to probe the case. In its plea it had stated that its probe was impeded by the statewide lockdown due to the second wave due to which it could not examine witnesses and collect material evidence. The court had granted it an additional 60 days considering that the investigation is being carried out in many folds. It had considered that due to the complexity of the matter, more time is required to probe it.
