Hours after Param Bir Singh was shunted out as Mumbai Commissioner of Police, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday night gave an ultimatum to the new CP Hemant Nagrale, two joint commissioners, the Anti-Terrorism Squad chief and the Thane additional commissioner (crime), to unravel the mystery of Mansukh Hiran’s death or face the axe. Thackeray, who was accompanied by Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, rapped the city police for their slow progress during Singh’s tenure. His diktat was to conduct the investigation on a war footing and resolve the case at the earliest.
A Maha Vikas Aghadi minister told The Free Press Journal, “Already six teams have been formed to solve the Mansukh Hiran’s death case. A murder case has been filed against unidentified persons under IPC sections 302, 201 and 120 (B) as Mansukh’s wife Vimala Hiran suspected that her husband was killed, not committed suicide. The six teams are expected to find the role of suspended police officer Sachin Vaze and Mansukh Hiran in the latter’s death. Besides, there is the question of how Vaze got hold of the Scorpio from Hiran and used it to plant the gelatin sticks without detonators.”
The minister said these teams would also probe the leakage of call data records (CDR) pertaining to the abandoned Scorpio near industrialist Mukesh Ambani`s residence.
Thackeray’s directive comes at a time when Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis demanded that the Mansukh Hiran death case should be taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is currently probing the bomb scare case. Further, the CM’s diktat aims to counter the BJP’s attacks against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for its alleged interference in the Mansukh Hiran death case.
Moreover, the decision by the new Mumbai police commissioner and the ATS chief to form six teams is important as Fadnavis has alleged that Hiran was killed and his body was dumped in the creek to destroy evidence.
