New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday extended, by four weeks, the interim bail granted to retired high-profile Maharashtra Police officer and “encounter specialist” Pradeep Sharma, arrested in connection with the sensational Mansukh Hiran murder case.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Sharma, submitted before a vacation bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and Prashant Kumar Mishra that his client’s wife could not be operated upon as the doctor concerned was out of the country.
He submitted that the doctor was travelling the entire June and he will return in the first week of July and then the surgery will be conducted then as he urged the top court to extend his client’s interim bail.
Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj objected to the extension of interim bail, saying that there is no specific date of surgery and Sharma may come again seeking extension of bail.
“This is a serious case and important witnesses are to be examined……”.
The bench said the doctor was not in the country and as a result, the surgery could not take place.
After hearing the arguments, the top court extended the interim bail period by four weeks and directed the matter to be listed after four weeks.
On June 5, the Supreme Court had granted three-weeks’ interim bail to Sharma, who moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court order, which rejected his bail application.
The top court had said that Sharma would be released on bail to take care of his ailing wife on the terms and conditions as fixed by the trial court.
A document filed by Sharma, in the court, said: “Petitioner’s mother is 93 years old and the wife of the petitioner is her primary caregiver. Due to the current medical complications of the wife, there is nobody to look after the wife and mother of the Petitioner. The Petitioner is the only male member to take care of his wife and old aged mother.”
“It is further submitted that if Petitioner is not released on bail/ interim bail, the same can have a debilitating effect on the health of his wife”.
In January, a division bench of the high court comprising Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and R. N. Laddha dismissed Sharma’s appeal challenging a Special NIA court order which had rejected his bail plea in February 2022.
A SUV laden with gelatin and a death threat to the Ambani family was found abandoned near the Antilia building on February 25, 2021, and on March 5, the vehicle owner Hiran was found dead in the Thane Creek.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the probe from Maharashtra Police and arrested Sharma in June 2021, contended that he allegedly conspired with another sacked policeman Sachin Vaze to finish off Hiran, considered a ‘weak link’ in the entire conspiracy to terrorise the Ambanis.
The NIA said that Hiran was in the know of the entire plot and the accused Sharma-Vaze were worried that he would spill the beans on them, so they plotted to eliminate him.
_IANS