The Supreme Court on Monday extended the interim bail of former Maharashtra Police officer Pradeep Sharma, arrested in connection with Antilia bomb scare case and the killing of a businessman Mansukh Hiran, to attend to his ailing wife.
A vacation bench of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra extended the interim bail, which was ending today, and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.
In the course of the hearing, advocate appearing for Sharma, told the vacation bench that the operation of Pradeep Sharma’s wife – involving reversal of the gastric bypass surgery – could not take place as the doctor who was to perform the surgery was not available and now it will take place in July.
While granting bail to Sharma for three weeks on June 5, the top court had asked him to furnish a medical report disclosing the progress in the treatment of his wife.
Sharma was arrested in June 2021 and was in judicial custody. He sought interim bail on humanitarian grounds.
Sharma has said that his wife has developed serious complications after a surgery and her condition was deteriorating with each passing day.
On May 18, the top court had issued notice on Sharma’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court order refusing to grant him bail. Sharma had moved the High Court last year against the February 2022 order of the special NIA court which had declined his bail plea.
On February 25, 2021, an explosives-laden SUV containing 20 gelignite sticks was found near Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s residence ‘Antilia’ in south Mumbai. Businessman Hiran, who was the owner of the SUV, was found dead in a creek in neighbouring Thane district on March 5 last year.
Sharma, who along with police officers Daya Nayak, Vijay Salaskar and Ravindranath Angre was a part of the Mumbai police’s encounter squad that killed over 300 criminals in numerous encounters, has been accused of helping his former colleague Waze in eliminating Mansukh Hiran.