Antilia terror scare case | Waze plea silent on who falsely implicated him: Court

One of the grounds referred to by Waze in his bail plea was that he could have been falsely implicated due to rivalry in the police force. “So far as internal rivalry of police department is concerned, the bail application of the applicant is silent as to with whom he had rivalry in the police department and how he has been iplicated in the false case,” special Judge A M Patil said in his order on September 16, which was made available on Friday.

Waze had also submitted that the threat letter did not mention clearly whom it was addressed to, the gelatin sticks were not connected to a detonator and there was no terror activity shown to have been planned to invoke Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) through its special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves had submitted that the motive behind the crime was for Waze to regain his clout as he had been reinstated in 2020 after being under suspension for 16 years for his alleged involvement in a custodial death case.

The court said that prime facie evidence shows that Waze had placed the SUV near Antilia.

“…it is amply clear that though the gelatin sticks were not connected with the detonator, but it is sufficient to create terror in the minds of people. Here in this case the attempt of the applicant was to create terror in the mind of a particular section of people and that is the Ambani Family and therefore this contention of the applicant is devoid of merit,” the court said.

The court said that the accused had also planned and executed Hiran’s murder as he denied taking responsibility for planting the threat letter and parking the car near Antilia. “It was a well-planned murder. Every precaution was taken from escaping the clutches of the law. It is not a simple allegation under the section of Penal Code. In such a situation, if the applicant is released on bail, then there is every possibility of tampering the witnesses,” the court said.

It said that there was prima facie evidence that Waze was collecting money from illegal sources and using it in various businesses.

It also said that while electronic evidence was submitted before the court by the NIA last month, nothing was shown by Waze to prove that the data was in his favour. It also said that Waze could not claim that his acts were part of his duty as he was investigating the case for 1-2 days before it was transferred to the ATS.

Ten persons were arrested in the case of which currently three, including retired police officer Pradeep Sharma, are out on bail.