Antilia bomb case: Supreme Court extends interim bail of ex-policeman Pradeep Sharma

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday extended by two weeks the interim bail of former Mumbai police officer Pradeep Sharma, arrested in connection with the Antilia bomb case and the murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran, in view of his wife’s surgery.

However, a bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Bela M Trivedi said that since the interim bail is being extended time and again, this would be the last extension.
“If the surgery is not done within this period, the petitioner (Pradeep Sharma) will have to surrender after two weeks. There will be no further extension of interim bail,” the bench told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Sharma.

Rohatgi said he would surrender if his wife’s surgery was not done by then. “This time the surgery could not be done as his blood pressure was not stabilising,” he added. The bench said that after Sharma surrenders, the court will hear his plea for regular bail.

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Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the NIA, said Sharma has been repeatedly seeking extension of interim bail citing various reasons.
On June 26, the apex court had extended the interim bail granted to Sharma by four weeks. The apex court had on June 5 granted interim bail to Sharma for three weeks noting that his wife had to undergo a surgery.

The top court had said that Sharma would be released on interim bail subject to the conditions imposed by the trial court. It had issued notice on May 18 on Sharma’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court order which had denied him bail. The High Court had expressed displeasure over the manner in which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was probing the case.

It had noted that the NIA probe was silent on the co-conspirators involved along with sacked policeman Sachin Vaze in placing gelatin sticks in an SUV parked outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence. On February 25, 2021, an SUV full of explosives was found near Ambani’s residence ‘Antilia’ in South Mumbai. Businessman Hiran, who owned an SUV, was found dead in a creek in neighboring Thane on March 5, 2021.

The allegation against Sharma, who along with police officers Daya Nayak, Vijay Salaskar and Ravindranath Angre, was a member of the Mumbai Police’s encounter squad that gunned down over 300 criminals in several encounters, was that he had helped his former colleague Waze eliminate the buck.

Salaskar had died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Sharma had approached the high court last year challenging the February 2022 order of the special NIA court rejecting his bail plea. He was arrested in June 2021 in the case.