Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday took into custody the two accused arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the Mansukh Hiran murder case, an official said.
The NIA took the custody of the duo- suspended policeman Vinayak Shinde and cricket bookie Naresh Gaur- in the evening, he said.
“A team of seven to eight NIA officials reached the ATS office here and took the accused duo into the custody,” the official said.
The ATS had arrested Shinde and Gaur last week.
Meanwhile, DCP Parag Manere of the Mumbai police’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW) reached the NIA office in the evening, an official said.
However, the reason behind his visit to the central agency’s south Mumbai office is yet to be known.
An explosives-laden SUV found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in south Mumbai on February 25 had been allegedly stolen from the possession of Hiran, the Thane-based businessman, whose body was found in a creek in Mumbra on March 5.
The NIA is probing the case of recovery of the explosives-laden SUV and arrested Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze. The central agency also took over the probe into the Hiran murder case from the ATS last week.
The ATS had said that Waze was also a prime accused in the Hiran murder case.
It had registered a murder case under section 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unknown persons, days after Hiran’s body was found.
Also read: Ex-cop, bookie, 93 SIMs, 14 phones, 3 days, WhatsApp — how Mansukh Hiran ‘murder was planned’