Antilia case: Former cop Pradeep Sharma gets 3 weeks’ bail to care for ailing wife

The Supreme Court on Monday (June 5) granted three weeks’ interim bail to former police officer Pradeep Sharma, arrested in connection with the bomb scare near Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai residence and the killing of businessman Mansukh Hiran in 2021, on account of his wife’s serious illness.

A vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal granted the relief to Sharma after noting his wife’s medical condition. They said he would be released subject to conditions imposed by the trial court.

On June 26, Sharma was asked to furnish a medical report indicating the status of his wife’s treatment.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati opposed the bail plea.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju argued that Sharma was seeking interim bail without filing an interlocutory application (application in appeal already instituted).

Wife’s illness

Sharma’s counsel sought interim bail on humanitarian grounds and said his wife had developed serious complications after a surgery.

He said the health of Sharma’s wife was deteriorating with each passing day and he was seeking interim bail to take care of her.

The top court had on May 18 issued notice on Sharma’s plea challenging an order of the Bombay High Court, which refused to grant him bail.

The high court, however, expressed anguish over the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) silence on the co-conspirators involved with dismissed policeman Sachin Waze in planting gelatin sticks in an SUV parked outside the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

Also read: Antilia bomb scare: NIA files charge sheet against Waze, Sharma, eight others

On February 25, 2021, an explosives-laden SUV was found near Ambani’s residence Antilia in Mumbai. Businessman Hiran, the owner of the SUV, was found dead in a creek in Thane the next month.

The allegation against Sharma is that he had helped his former colleague Waze in eliminating Hiran. Sharma had approached the high court last year, challenging a 2022 order of a special NIA court rejecting his bail plea.

(With agency inputs)