IT Correspondent
Mumbai, Mar 8:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case of a vehicle laden with explosives being found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence “Antilllia” in South Mumbai, on Monday.
The NIA took over the case following orders from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, he said. The agency is in the process of re-registering the case, an official the spokesperson said. The Mahindra Scorpio, with 20 gelatin sticks inside, was found near Ambani’s high-rise south Mumbai home on February 25.
Hiren Mansukh(45), the owner of vehicle was found dead in a creek in Thane on Friday, March 05,2021 and his body was fished out from the retibunder (Kalwa) creek in Thane district at about 10.15 AM on Friday by the regional disaster management cell of Thane Municipal Corporation.
Hiren was missing since Thursday (March 04) the kin of Hiren had registered a missing complaint with Navpada police. He had reportedly told his family before leaving from home that he was going to meet some ‘saheb’.
Hiren, an automobile dealer, had parked the car in Vikhroli on February 17 since it developed defects while he was on his way to Mumbai from Thane. However the next day he found that the car was missing. As such he had complained of the missing car with the Vikhroli police station. This narration he had given to the media early last week soon after the incident .
While the Accidental Death Report was registered with Mumbra Police Station, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorists Squad had registered a separate case after his wife complained that her husband was killed and had not committed a suicide by jumping into the creek as claimed by the Thane police.
In the ongoing budget session of the Maharashtra State legislature, the leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis(BJP) had described the whole chain of events as ‘fishy’ and demanded that the probe be handed over to the NIA.
Speaking in the Assembly, Fadnavis had accused the Uddhav Thackeray-led government of taking the case lightly and ignoring Ambani’s security. “The CM and the home minister must make a statement in the Assembly regarding the incident. A car filled with explosives was found outside Ambani’s house, this shows that how serious is the government regarding the issue of safety and security of people,” Fadnavis he had said.
The explosives-laden green-colored Scorpio was found abandoned just yards away from Mukesh Ambani’s house “Antilia”. About 20 gelatin sticks were found in the car following which Mumbai Police had launched a massive drive to trace the culprits. They found out that the Scorpio had been stolen from Vikhroli 10 days before the incident. It had a fake registration number, the same as that of the lead vehicle in the security convoy of Nita Ambani. On February 28, an organization named Jaish-ul-Hind had claimed responsibility for placing an explosives-laden SUV near Ambani’s house.
