In the Mansukh Hiren’s murder case, the Thane sessions court on Wednesday has asked the state’s Anti Terrorism- Sqaud (ATS) to stop their investigation and hand over the case to NIA. Hiren, the owner of the explosives-laden Mahindra Scorpio parked outside Mukesh Ambani’s ‘Antilia’ residence in Mumbai, was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5.
The orders came after the central agency NIA approached the court after ATS was not handing over the relevant documents, despite getting orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs. NIA had already taken over the Antilia bomb case and had registered an FIR. NIA has arrested a suspended Mumbai Police API, Sachin Vaze, and remanded to its custody till March 25.
The Maharashtra ATS has arrested an alleged bookie Naresh Gaur and a suspended police constable Vinayak Shinde on the matter. The Thane court has also ordered the ATS to hand over the custody of both Gaur and Shinde to the NIA on Wednesday itself.