In light of his wife’s surgery, the Supreme Court on Monday extended the interim bail granted to former Mumbai Police officer Pradeep Sharma, who was detained in connection with the assassination of businessman Mansukh Hiran and the Antilia bomb scare case, by four weeks.
Justices AS Bopanna and Prashant Kumar Mishra, sitting on vacation, extended the respite given to Sharma earlier this month after senior attorney Siddharth Dave, representing Sharma, said his wife couldn’t have surgery since the doctor in question was out of the country.
The medical professional travelled extensively in June. Dave asked the court to prolong the interim bail granted to Sharma, a former encounter expert with the Mumbai Police, saying that Sharma is now scheduled to travel to India in the first week of July after which the operation would be performed.
The plea for an extension of interim release was challenged by Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj on the grounds that Sharma would later return and request an extension of the bail term and that no exact date for the operation was stated.
“This is a crucial case, and key witnesses must be questioned. Extension requests were often denied, he alleged.
These are minor difficulties, according to Justice Bopanna, and the procedure could not be performed since the doctor was out of the country.
The interim bail term was extended by four weeks by the bench after reading the most recent order and the doctor’s report, and it was ordered that the case be listed four weeks later.
After observing that Sharma’s wife needs surgery, the top court granted him temporary relief for three weeks on June 5.
Sharma would be freed on temporary bail subject to any restrictions set by the trial court, the top court had said.
According to a medical document dated May 27, 2023 from the Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai, the petitioner’s wife should have her gastric bypass operation reversed.
Given the justification for the request for temporary bail, the top court had said, “We direct that the petitioner shall be released on interim bail on such conditions that the trial court may consider fit and proper, for a period of three weeks, to attend to his wife’s treatment.”
The top court had scheduled the case for hearing on June 26 and ordered Sharma to provide a medical report outlining the status of his wife’s treatment.
On May 18, the Supreme Court sent notice in response to Sharma’s appeal of the Bombay High Court’s decision to deny him bail.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA)’s investigation of the matter caused the high court much distress.
It had been highlighted that the co-conspirators who helped former police officer Sachin Waze install gelatin sticks in an SUV parked outside businessman Mukesh Ambani’s home were not included in the NIA’s investigation.
On February 25, 2021, a vehicle packed with explosives was discovered close to Anil Ambani’s ‘Antilia’ home in south Mumbai. Businessman Hiran, who owned the SUV, was discovered dead in a nearby stream on March 5, 2021.
Sharma was accused of aiding his former partner Waze in killing Hiran. Sharma, along with police officers Daya Nayak, Vijay Salaskar, and Ravindranath Angre, was a member of the Mumbai Police’s encounter unit that murdered over 300 criminals in multiple encounters.
Salaskar perished in the terrorist assault in Mumbai on November 26.
Sharma had petitioned the high court in an effort to overturn a special NIA court’s ruling from February 2022 that had denied his request for release.
Sharma is now in judicial jail after being detained in connection with the case in June 2021.
