Waze is currently lodged in the Thane Central Prison, and his bail formalities, following the special court order on Tuesday, were yet to be completed

Published on: Sep 30, 2026, 14:19:42 IST

Prefer HTon Google

Share via
Copy link

The Bombay high court on Wednesday temporarily stayed the order passed by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday granting bail to former Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze in the Antilia explosives case and the related murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiren in 2021.

A division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Dr. Neela Gokhale heard NIA’s arguments and stayed the bail order for the time being, while adjourning the matter for hearing next week.

After Waze was granted bail on Tuesday, the NIA moved the Bombay high court immediately challenging the special court’s order.

The matter was first placed before a division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale on Tuesday. However, the bench recused itself from hearing the matter, stating that Justice Kotwal was associated with senior advocate Manoj Mohite during his advocacy days, who had appeared for Waze in the matter earlier.

Subsequently, the NIA on Wednesday appeared before a division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Ashish Chavan. However, when the matter was called out, Justice Dangre refused to hear the appeal, pointing out that she was a part of another bench which had passed an order in connection to Waze in another criminal case.

She said that Waze was made an accused in the matter along with former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

“I will have to recuse myself from hearing the matter. I understand that this is a different matter but still there are connections here and there. It should be placed before another bench”, she said.

Waze was arrested by the NIA on March 13, 2021, for allegedly planting an explosives-laden SUV outside the Altamount Road residence of Mukesh Ambani. The car that belonged to Mansukh Hiren had 20 gelatine sticks and a note that threatened to kill members of the Ambani family.

The court, in its bail order, said the prosecution had failed to establish exactly “whose mind the applicant/accused Sachin wanted to create terror… There is absolutely nothing on record even to infer by any stretch of imagination that the Ambanis or any one of them is/was, are/were ever terrorized in any manner. Rather, the facts appear otherwise. Day-to-day business of the Ambanis does not appear to have been disturbed even for a minute,” said judge Chakor Bawiskar.

The case arises from three interconnected FIRs registered in February and March 2021 in Mumbai. The first of these was registered on February 18, 2021 when Thane-based auto parts dealer Mansukh Hiran reported his Mahindra Scorpio SUV stolen from Vikhroli.

On February 25, the “stolen” vehicle was found parked outside Antilia with 20 gelatine sticks and a letter threatening the Ambani family, triggering the registration of a second FIR.

According to the NIA, it was Waze himself who parked the car outside Antilia, and gave a contract to his former encounter squad colleague Pradip Sharma to kill Hiran after the latter refused to take the blame for planting the vehicle. Sharma, in turn, allegedly, arranged for contract killers while another serving police officer, inspector Sunil Mane, got Hiran out of his house and handed him over to four contract killers provided by Sharma.

See Less