10K-page NIA chargesheet on Waze, 9 others in Antilia case

The National Investigating Agency filed a 10,000-page chargesheet on Friday in the Ambani bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder cases. Ten persons, including dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze, his associates Riyazuddin Kazi and Sunil Mane and Waze’s mentor Pradeep Sharma, were charged in the “Antilia” bomb scare, at industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s home, the theft of an SUV in which the explosives were found and the murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiren.

The accused were charged with criminal conspiracy, abduction, murder, destruction of evidence, extortion, forgery, etc under the IPC, Arms Act, UAPA, among other provisions.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday sought two weeks’ time to reply to the petitions filed by jailed activists Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha seeking cloned copies of the electronic devices seized from them by investigators. The NIA told the Bombay high court that it will not press the special court to proceed with the framing of charges in the case till the next hearing on pending petitions.

Mr Bharadwaj and Mr Navlakha, both accused in the Elgar Parishad case, had approached the high court last month seeking such copies. While hearing the petitions, the high court, on August 20, had directed the NIA to file its reply over it and had posted the matter on September 3.

On Friday when the matter came up for hearing before a division bench of Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice N.J. Jamadar, the additional solicitor general Anil Singh sought more time to comply with the court order. He told the bench that the NIA’s reply was “almost ready” and sought an additional two weeks’ time to submit it in the court.

The special NIA court had scheduled for matter for framing of charges on August 23, after the agency submitted draft charges before the court last month.