Mumbai: An in-charge National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday extended the police custody of two persons who were arrested before the arrests of former police officer Pradeep Sharma and two others in the Antilla bomb scare-Mansukh Hiran case till July 1. Dismissed police inspector Sunil Mane whose custody was sought again after the two arrests, was sent back to judicial custody by the court.
After the arrests of Santhosh Shelar and Anand Jadhav, who the agency claims were present in a Tavera car when Hiran was murdered, the NIA had approached the special court seeking the custodial interrogation of Mane. His custody with the agency had ended on May 1.
On June 21, when the Shelar and Jadhav’s custody was extended by the court till 25 June, it had granted NIA custody of Mane after the agency told the court that it needed his custody to confront him with the two accused.
On Friday, the custody of all the three ended. The NIA sought that Mane be remanded back to judicial custody. Special judge DE Kothalikar has remanded him to judicial custody till July 2, and extended the custody of Shelar and Jadhav till July 1.
After the arrest of retired encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and two others, NIA had told the court that Shelar and Jadhav were present in the red Tavera car in which Hiran was murdered. NIA had claimed that Hiran was smothered by two men arrested with Sharma identified as Satish Mothkuri and Manish Soni. The murder was committed at the behest of Sharma and now dismissed Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, it had alleged.
