Hours after the Mansukh Hiran case transferred to central agency NIA, the DIG Maharashtra ATS Shivdeep Lande has claimed that the ‘Mansukh Hiren death case’ has been solved.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Lande said, “The riddle of the very sensitive Mansukh Hiren murder has been solved. I heartily salute to all my ATS police force colleagues who worked day and night to solve this case legally.”
“This case has been one of the most complex cases of my police career,” he added.
Shivdeep, as a report mentions, is the husband of Shiv Sena leader Vijay Shivtare’s daughter, Mamta Shivtare. Shivtare has served as Minister of State for Water Resources and Water Conservation in the government of Maharashtra. He lost to Congress’ Sanjay Jagtap in 2019 Assembly polls.
Shivdeep’s comment came after the ATS made two arrests in the case on Sunday. The ATS had arrested a 55-year-old former police constable named Vinayak Shinde and a 31-year-old bookie named Naresh Dhare in connection with the case. Shinde is an accused in the Lakhan Bhaiya encounter case and he had worked with Sachin Vaze in the team of encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma.
As per the claim, Dhare had provided five fake sim cards to Sachin Vaze and suspended Mumbai Police constable Vinayak Shinde. ATS suspects the same card was used in the crime. ATS has also found after getting parole in the Lakhan Bhayya encounter case, Vinayak met Sachin Vaze multiple times and was helping him in his illegal activities, its claimed.
As per ATS, while tracing Mansukh Hiren’s call activity of March 4 (the day he went missing), it was revealed that Shinde was close to Mansukh Hiren’s location in Godbunder.
Initially Mumbai police tried to say that Hiren had committed suicide, but later on it became clear that it was a murder related to the explosive case.
Now it would be interesting to learn which way the case would turn.
