In a major development in National Investigation Agency's probe in to the Manuskh Hiren death case, the agency has recorded the statement of a hotelier, who told the probe agency that he saw the businessman on March 3 when he went to handover the 'hafta' (weekly) collection to Mumbai Police cop Sachin Vaze at his CIU office.
As per a report in India Today, the hotelier in his statement to NIA said he had seen Mansukh Hiren, arrested constable Vinayak Shinde and some policemen in a meeting. The NIA is likely to question the policemen as to what they were doing in the CIU office when they were attached to another unit.
Further he said, "the meeting happened behind closed doors between 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm on March 3. Mansukh Hiren was looking disturbed and was murmuring to himself about an "unreasonable demand" when he had done nothing wrong."
While, Maharashtra ATS believes that the plan to kill Mansukh Hiren was planned between March 2 to 3 at the CIU office situated at the Mumbai Police headquarters.
According to NIA, Sachin Vaze was trying to convince Mansukh Hiren to take responsibility for the Ambani bomb scare case for which he was not ready. A constable has supported the hotelier's claim that Mansukh Hiren was not ready to accept the blame for the sensational case. Now, the agencies are looking for all the suspects involved in the killing of Mansukh Hiren.
According to sources, a police official had applied for a leave for the day Mansukh Hiren was murdered. As per agencies theory, according to police rules, the leave has to be applied four days in advance but here it was done two days prior.
On February 25, 2021, an abandoned vehicle - Scorpio, containing 20 sticks of gelatin sticks was found parked near the residence of Mukesh Ambani's Antilia. The Scorpio which was found with the explosives belonged to Mansukh Hiren, a Thane-based businessman.
Later, Hiren's body was fished out of Mumbra creek in Thane on March 5.
