SUV bomb scare case: Does the buck stop with Pradeep Sharma?

CRPF jawans seen outside the NIA office on Friday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigating the Mukesh Ambani threat and Mansukh Hiran murder cases has not ruled out the arrest of other officers who may have masterminded the conspiracy and instructed former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and his close aide, dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Waze. The agency's suspicions about others' involvement are growing stronger after Sharma and his close aide, Santosh Shelar's arrest.

The NIA covered the gates of its office with a plastic sheet to prevent photojournalists from seeing anything inside. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The NIA initially suspected Waze to be the mastermind. Now it says that both Waze and Sharma are the main conspirators and have not ruled out the involvement of others, including a senior officer. "These two are conspirators but we cannot rule out the involvement of others till the time we complete our investigation and file a charge sheet," an NIA officer said.

The agency's suspicions are growing stronger after the arrest of Sharma and his close aide, Santosh Shelar. "Everyone is being probed and our investigation is underway. The entire conspiracy is deep-rooted and requires thorough investigation. The arrested police officers are doing their best to mislead us," the officer said.

According to the source, Internet Protocol Detail Records (IPDR) analysis helped the NIA arrest Sharma, who had been on their radar since the beginning of the probe. The NIA says Sharma misled them on everything by saying that he didn't know any of the arrested accused. The agency became more suspicious when he claimed he never communicated with Waze. He made similar claims before the court on Wednesday but the agency's IPDR analysis found evidence to suggest he was in touch with Waze and the other accused who eliminated businessman Hiran in March.

Maha ATS's inputs crucial

Call Detail Records (CDR) and IPDR analysis form the concrete evidence which the NIA said it has gathered against Sharma. According to the NIA, Sharma allegedly was in touch with Hiran's killers and involved in the planting of the Scorpio car laden with explosive material near Antilia, Mukesh Ambani's residence. According to sources, Sharma's role surfaced during the Maharashtra ATS's investigation too, but the case was transferred to NIA when it was in the initial stages of the probe. Sources said that the Maharashtra ATS's inputs were instrumental in the NIA establishing Sharma's role. Shelar's arrest and IPDR analysis were the other crucial links leading to his arrest.

Waze had procured 12-14 SIM cards through a co-accused bookie, Naresh Gor, to use in the crime. Some of them were seized by the ATS and some by NIA. One of the SIM cards was used to call Hiran and its last location was found to be near Sharma's residence on March 4. The NIA has done an IPDR analysis of all those numbers. "The IPDR analysis was instrumental in establishing some hidden facts of the case," a source said. The agency asked the court for maximum custody of Sharma based on the analysis.

"We need to do a face to face confrontation of other accused with Sharma to reveal the truth of the case," the source added.

On Friday, the NIA also beefed up security at its Peddar Road office. It covered the gates with a plastic sheet to prevent photojournalists from seeing anything and deployed CRPF jawans.

What is IPDR?

Cybercrime investigator and founder, V4WEB Cybersecurity, Ritesh Bhatia said, "Internet Protocol Detail Records (IPDR) are logs generated and maintained by telecom service providers for every subscriber accessing the internet via their network. IPDR provide a mobile's IMEI no/device ID, the originating IP address, destination IP address (which website/platform was visited/used), location, date and time. Such information is very useful while investigating cases as it provides location and device details of the user."

14

Approx. no. of SIMs Waze got, which were seized and analysed