The Bombay High Court on Thursday cancelled the bail granted to former Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze in the 2021 Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiren murder case, Bar and Bench reported. A division bench of Justices GS Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale pronounced the verdict on an appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging the bail granted by a special court on September 29.

Source: Bar and Bench

Pronouncing the verdict, the bench said: "Special court's order is quashed and set aside... Appeal by NIA is allowed," Live Law reported. A detailed copy of the order is yet to be made available, both reports said.

Source: Live Law

The special court had granted Waze bail after questioning the applicability of terrorism charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against him, noting the lack of witness statements from the Ambani family. It had also noted that the Ambanis continued with their usual routine life and that there was nothing on record to show that any member of the family was terrorised.

Arguing for the NIA, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the High Court that the special judge had passed an erroneous order, pointing out that statements from Antilia's security personnel had indeed been recorded. The NIA alleges that Waze parked the gelatin-laden SUV outside Mukesh Ambani's residence for extortion and to stage-manage a terror plot, hoping to solve it and project himself as a supercop, and that when vehicle owner Mansukh Hiren refused to take the fall, he was eliminated as a weak link. These are the agency's allegations, which Waze denies through his defence.

Senior Advocate VM Thorat, appearing for Waze, countered that even if the NIA's narrative is accepted, staging a scare merely to regain clout does not constitute terrorism under Section 15 of the UAPA. He argued that intimidating a single family using gelatin sticks without a detonator does not strike terror in the general public, and that eliminating Hiren amounted to destruction of evidence rather than a terror act. Thorat also pressed for bail citing Waze's five-year incarceration and parity with co-accused.

According to the NIA, an explosives-laden Scorpio car, along with a threat letter, was found near the Ambani residence on February 25, 2021. Mansukh Hiran, a businessman who said the vehicle had been stolen from his possession a week earlier, was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5. Waze, who was initially investigating the case, was arrested on March 13, 2021; the probe was subsequently transferred to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and then to the NIA. All the accused are booked for murder and under relevant sections of the UAPA.

The NIA also highlighted before the court that Waze owned more than five high-end cars and stayed for more than 100 days in a five-star hotel at a time when he was earning a monthly salary of Rs 90,000, Live Law reported. Waze had supported the special court's reasoning and pleaded the ground of long incarceration.

Waze never walked out on the September bail order: the High Court had stayed its operation a day after it was granted, and he remained in custody while the NIA's appeal was heard. With Thursday's verdict allowing the appeal, the bail stands cancelled and Waze remains in custody. The detailed order, awaited at the time of reporting, will set out the bench's full reasoning on the UAPA terrorism charge and the bail merits.