On February 25, 2021, a car holding 20 gelignite sticks was discovered outside Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai home, sparking the Antilia bomb scare case. The incident was a prelude to more bloodshed, according to a note in the car addressed to Mukesh and his wife, Nita Ambani.

The bomb scare is remarkable for the subsequent series of events, which led to the resignation of several prominent officials. The car was found to belong to Thane resident Mansukh Hiren, who had reported it stolen the week prior. Hiren was discovered dead in Mumbai one week later. A Mumbai Police officer named Sachin Vaze, who Hiren knew was involved in planting the explosive-laden car, was detained. Param Bir Singh, the commissioner of the Mumbai Police, was accordingly fired. Anil Deshmukh, the home minister, was also compelled to retire after the Bombay High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into Singh's allegations in a letter to the Chief Minister, in which he claimed Vaze was acting under his command.

Mansukh Hiren Life

In 1977, Mansukh, an employee of an automobile firm in Thane, Maharashtra. In terms of his family, he resides in Thane with his better half and their three children. The name of his better half is Vimla. It is a trying period for the entire family. His wife and kids are still alive. At the time of his passing, he was 43 years old, 5 feet 5 inches tall. Speaking of his appearance, he had black hair and black eyes, according to the photos available.

Mansukh Hiren's Wife’s FIR

"On February 5, Vaze complained about the car's harsh steering and brought it to our shop. On February 17, Hiren drove off to Mumbai. The steering, nevertheless, became stuck, so he parked the vehicle next to the Mulund toll plaza. The car was not to be located the following day”, Mansukh’s wife claimed.

"When the Scorpio was discovered on February 25 close to Ambani's home, the ATS Vikhroli station questioned my husband. According to Vimla, the car was identified by my husband, who also notified them of the theft allegation and displayed a copy of the FIR”.

She further mentioned that on February 27 and 28, her husband had met with Vaze, an "encounter specialist". "On March 2, Hiren informed me that, in response to Vaze's request, he had complained to the Chief Minister, the Home Minister, and the Police Commissioners of Thane and Mumbai about harassment by the police and the media. However, my husband denied being tortured by police; when I asked him about it, she complained, saying. “My spouse can't drown because he was a good swimmer. His personal belongings were lost, including his phone, gold chain, and wallet. Given the circumstances, I am certain he was murdered, and I believe Vaze is responsible, she claimed in her complaint.

Death of Mansukh Hiren

The assumed car owner, Mansukh Hiren, was later discovered dead after reporting the theft to the police. Early on March 5, his body was discovered floating in Kalwa Creek. He was wearing a face mask with five handkerchiefs rolled underneath it. His items, including a phone, gold necklace, and wallet, were not recovered. Devendra Fadnavis, the opposition leader, claimed to have telephone records from that day proving Hiren had communicated with Mumbai Police Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze. The latter had been looking into the bomb scare case until that point. Fadnavis thought this was strange and asked the National Investigation Agency to investigate it. The Hiren tragedy and the bomb fear were then turned over to the Mumbai Police Anti-Terrorism Squad on March 5.

Although Hiren's postmortem at Kalwa's Hirenat Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital did not identify his cause of death, it did note that he had had numerous abrasions before passing away. According to a diatom analysis, Hiren was conscious when he crossed the brook. The Maharashtra Home Department requested that Hiren's death be moved to the Anti-Terrorism Squad after an accidental death report was made at the Mumbra police station. Based on a complaint from Hiren's wife, the ATS obtained the records from the Mumbra police station and, on March 7, opened a murder case.

According to Hiren's relatives, he had been called to the Mumbai CP office almost daily to be questioned over the Mahindra Scorpio issue. He had reported the harassment to the police commissioners in Thane and Mumbai. They claimed that he was operating his Thane vehicle décor business when Tawde, masquerading as an investigator in the bomb scare case, called at around 8 o'clock. Hiren informed his kid that he would meet a Crime Branch representative from the Kandivali section in Thane's Ghodbunder neighbourhood. One in Vasai-Virar and the other in Tungareshwar, Hiren's two mobile phones were turned on and off 30 minutes apart and a distance of 10 km. The murderers might have done this to give Hiren misleading location cues, according to police speculation. 10:30 p.m. saw the turning off of the phones.

The following morning, when Hiren's family could not contact him, they reported him missing to the Naupada police station. His wife suspected Sachin Vaze of murdering her husband, and she filed a first information report after his body was found. In her FIR, she made a note of the dates on which Hiren and Vaze first spoke, and she claimed that Vaze had encouraged Hiren to complain to the Chief Minister about harassment by the police and the media. Vaze requested that he be placed under custody, and Hiren had discussed anticipatory bail with a lawyer.

Vaze was transferred from the Mumbai Crime Branch to the Citizen Facilitation Centre at Mumbai Police Headquarters on March 10, when his name surfaced in connection with Hiren's passing. Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Nitin Alakhnure was given the case involving the bomb scare.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad identified Vaze as the main suspect in the death of Hiren in a statement on March 21. The National Investigation Agency detained Vaze on March 13 for his role in putting the explosive-filled truck close to Antilia after more than 12 hours of questioning.

Investigation

The Mumbai Police organised over ten teams to look into the case of the bomb scare. Officials from the Crime Branch examined the car's details to determine who owned it. They combed through local closed-circuit television officials from the Anti-Terrorism Squad and looked into a potential terror connection. Because he was hiding behind a mask, it was impossible to tell who was sitting in the Scorpio.

CCTV captured a white Toyota Innova pursuing the Scorpio from Thane to Carmichael Road. CCTV footage showed them travelling in opposite directions, passing the Mulund toll booth, coming together at Kurla's Priyadarshini Junction, and then continuing to Byculla. At the Khada Parsi crossroads, the vehicles turned and continued to Carmichael Road. At 2:18 a.m., the Scorpio's driver parked it close to Antilia (where it was last seen) and departed in the Innova. The Innova was detected leaving Mumbai and entering Thane before its trace was lost (it also had a fake registration number).

Police asked a private company to track the mobile phone from which the message was transmitted after a Telegram post from the Jaish-Ul-Hind claimed responsibility. After receiving information from the agency that the phone had been used at (or close to) Tihar Jail, where a terrorist from the now-dormant Indian Mujahedeen was being housed, the Delhi Police special cell confiscated it. The address for the Monero cryptocurrency mentioned in the mail was invalid when the Mumbai Police checked it. Later, Jaish-Ul-Hind denied authorship of the post and claimed it was a hoax.

Solar Industries, a firm with its headquarters in Nagpur, produced the gelatin sticks, which admitted to authorities that they could not identify the purchaser. After conducting a forensic investigation, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Kalina, Mumbai, discovered ammonium nitrate in the sticks. However, the explosive could only produce a weak blast and could not seriously harm anything.

Arrests

The National Investigation Agency detained Vaze on March 13 for his role in putting the explosive-filled vehicle close to Antilia after more than 12 hours of questioning. In connection with the murder of Mansukh Hiren, the ATS detained cricket bookmaker Naresh Ramniklal Gor and police officer Vinayak Balasaheb Shinde (who collaborated with Vaze) on March 21. Shinde allegedly pretended to be Tawde and invited Hiren to meet him on Ghodbunder Road after Hiren vanished. Another ATS team captured a Gujarati man who gave five SIM cards to Vaze and Shinde and five SIM cards to Gor using bogus identification. The NIA detained Riyazuddin Kazi on April 11 after he helped Vaze in the Antilia bomb case and destroyed evidence in the Hiren murder case.