Mumbai, Sep 29 The NIA was left red-faced on Tuesday when a special court asked what "muhurat" the probe agency was waiting for to record the statements of the alleged targets in the 2021 Antilia bomb scare case, as it granted bail to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze.
The court said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to establish a prima facie case of terrorism under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against Waze, and that there was no evidence on record to prove industrialist Mukesh Ambani's family was terrorised by his alleged act.
Waze, a key accused in the combined Antilia bomb scare and businessman Mansukh Hiran murder case, is expected to walk out of prison on Wednesday after nearly five years, his lawyer said.
"No one knows which 'Muhurat' (auspicious time) the Investigating Agency is waiting for to record a statement of any of the targets of the alleged terror, after such a long gap of 5-6 years has already lapsed after the incident of parking of the explosive," Special Sessions Judge Chakor S Baviskar said.
Passing the order, the judge said that the prosecution had not produced basic statements to back its terrorism charge.
"There is absolutely nothing on record even to infer by any stretch of imagination that, the Ambanis or anyone of them is/was, are/were ever terrorised in any manner," the sessions court held while allowing Waze's bail plea.
The day-to-day business of the Ambanis does not appear to have been disturbed even for a minute by the alleged act of parking of an SUV with explosives inside near their south Mumbai residence 'Antilia', it said.
"Though according to the prosecution, Sachin (A/1) wanted to strike terror or, the act of the accused was likely to strike terror in the minds of Ambanis'...there is nothing on record to that effect. Even if we suppose ourselves that, he wanted to create terror in the minds of Ambanis, it is impossible to accept that, any such terror was in fact ever created in the mind of anyone, least in the minds of Ambanis," the judge said.
The court also noted that the gelatin sticks found in the SUV lacked detonators, rendering them useless, and falling short of the "means" required to define a "terrorist act" under Section 15 of the UAPA.
As to the murder of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran, the court stated that while it was a homicidal death, it was not the direct outcome of a terrorist act.
It was an independent offence under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, and the stringent bail restrictions under the UAPA would not apply to it, the court held.
The prosecution had accused Waze and others of forming a "terrorist gang" and entering into a criminal conspiracy.
On February 25, 2021, an SUV with explosives inside was found near billionnaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence.
Businessman Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV before it was allegedly stolen, was found dead in a creek in neighbouring Thane on March 5, 2021.
Sachin Waze was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on March 13, 2021. He was subsequently made an accused in a corruption case being probed by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
Waze has already got bail in the corruption case.
His lawyer said they were completing the formalities to obtain his release memo and he was likely to walk out of jail on Wednesday.
