Vaze drove vehicle that escorted SUV with explosives to Ambani residence

Mumbai, Mar 17: The remand report filed by the National Investigation Agency suggests that prima facie it appeared that Sachin Vaze had driven the white vehicle that escorted the SUV with explosives near the residence of Mukesh Ambani on February 25.

The NIA probe identified Vaze as the person seen in the CCTV footage wearing a large kurta and covering his face, a few hours after he SUV was parked outside the Ambani residence that day.

Anil Shukla, NIA IG said that the investigators also found that the fake number plate used for the Scorpio was from a black Mercedes used by Vaze. The Mercedes was recovered on Tuesday from a parking lot in South Mumbai with clothes and Rs 5 lakh in cash apart from a currency counting machine.

The NIA arrested Vaze for his alleged role in planting explosives in a vehicle which was found outside the house of Mukesh Ambani. Vaze is also under investigation for his alleged role in the suspicious death of businessman Mansukh Hiran.

Vaze had denied that he was using the Scorpio which was in possession of Mansukh Hiran, a senior Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) official said on Thursday.

The ATS, which is probing Hiran's mysterious death, recorded Vaze's statement earlier this week, he said.

Hiran's wife had claimed that her husband had given the SUV to Vaze in November, which the Mumbai crime branch officer returned in the first week of February.

On February 25, the SUV was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house in south Mumbai with explosives and a threat letter inside. Hiran had claimed that it had been stolen a week earlier, but the case got murky when he was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5.

Vaze, accused by Hiran's wife of involvement in her husband's suspicious death, was shunted out of the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the investigators have yet to trace the Innova car in which the man who parked the Scorpio near Ambani's house is seen leaving the spot in CCTV footage, another official said.

Vaze was on Friday transferred from the crime intelligence unit to the special branch. Teams of the ATS and NIA, which has taken over the probe have almost identified Hiran's last location from where he disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The agencies found a face mask and several handkerchiefs on Hiren's face when his body was pulled out of creek in Thane.