IPS officer who played key role in cracking Antilia case resigns

MUMBAI: Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Shivdeep Lande, 47, who led the team that cracked the February-March 2021 cases related to the Antilia bomb scare and the subsequent murder of Thane’s automobile accessories dealer Mansukh Hiran in Mumbai, resigned from IPS on Thursday.
At the time, Lande was on a five-year inter-state deputation to his home state Maharashtra from his cadre state Bihar, from 2016 to 2021. He was then the Additional Commissioner of Police (Addl CP) of Maharashtra ‘s elite anti-terror agency – the Anti-Terrorism Squad. Lande, born in Maharashtra’s Akola, was a qualified electrical engineer before joining the IPS.
Early on February 25, 2021, an explosives-laden Scorpio was found abandoned and parked on the wrong side, 600 metres from industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Carmichael Road residence, Antilia. Twenty packets of industrial explosive, gelatin, were found in the SUV along with a letter issuing a threat to the Ambanis and a flag of the IPL team, Mumbai Indians.
The probe of the case was given to the Crime Branch but it was Lande’s team of officers from the ATS that traced the purported owner of the SUV – Mansukh Hiran from Thane – under dramatic circumstances. After failing to find the SUV to undertake a search, the ATS team asked the then CIU officer, assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, about the Scorpio and he said it was parked at the Yellow Gate police station in South Mumbai.
The ATS team swooped down at the police station and conducted a thorough search of the SUV. Though the chassis number of the vehicle was allegedly found tampered with, rendering it useless, Lande’s team managed to trace a sticker on one of the window panes that carried the number of an agency that had arranged for its finance. The car’s financier was contacted who told the ATS that the vehicle had a couple of owners in the past but the current owner was Hiran. The ATS tracked him down and took his verbal statement by 11 pm of February 25, 2021. However, it had to discontinue the lead at that juncture as the then state authorities maintained that the probe was given to the Crime Branch, not the ATS.
Hiran told the ATS that his Scorpio had allegedly been stolen the month before and he had filed a missing complaint with the Vikhroli police on February 18. Hiran claimed he had to park the vehicle on the Airoli-Mulund Bridge after its steering became too stiff for driving. When he returned with an employee the next day, the SUV was missing.
A week later, on March 5, 2021, the body of Hiran was recovered from the Mumbra creek in Thane by the local police. He had gone missing the night before, on March 4, and his mobile phone was found to be switched off after 11 pm. The local police had registered a case of unnatural death and an Accidental Death Report. On March 7, 2021, the ATS had registered a murder case related to Hiran’s death against unidentified persons based on the statement of his wife who had raised suspicions regarding Waze’s role. The ATS registered the case after the then state government had handed over the case to them along with the bomb scare case.
As part of the case’s investigation, Lande, who is known for his thorough and immaculate evidence-and-intelligence gathering skills, directed his team to collect a vast body of CCTV footage from the area around the Mumbai police headquarters at Crawford Market in South Mumbai to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and all along the routes from the city to Thane. The footages had ultimately yielded clues that led to a team of accused that had allegedly abducted and killed Hiren.
Later, NIA took over both the cases from the ATS. On March 13, 2021, NIA grilled Waze for around 10 hours at its South Mumbai office and then took him in custody. He denied all allegations of involvement in the two cases and is currently in judicial custody. In September 2021, the NIA filed a charge sheet against 10 accused in the explosives scare case and the Hiran murder case including Waze.
When asked about his resignation on Thursday, Lande, now Inspector General of Police (Purnia range, Bihar) told HT that he had resigned due to “personal reasons”. He also said, “The resignation is yet to be accepted by the government and once it is accepted, I will consider my future course of action while staying in Bihar.”
Sources close to Lande said he may make a foray into the field of “public service”. Lande had sent his resignation to the Director General of Bihar Police. The government has to take a call on his resignation within the next three months.