Antilia bomb scare case: Why Sachin Vaze’s bail lasted a day | Explained

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Sachin Vaze, the former police officer accused of conspiring in the placement of explosives near the Ambani home and in the murder of Mansukh Hiran in 2021. File | Photo Credit: PTI

The Story So Far: Sachin Vaze, accused of conspiring in the placement of explosives near the Ambani home and in the murder of Mansukh Hiran in 2021, received bail on Tuesday (September 29, 2026). The Bombay High Court stayed the order on Wednesday (September 30, 2026).

Sachin Vaze, the former police officer accused in the Antilia bomb scare and the murder of Mansukh Hiran, received bail from a Mumbai court on Tuesday (September 29, 2026). The Bombay High Court paused that order on Wednesday (September 30, 2026), and Mr. Vaze remains in Thane Central Prison.

The stay will remain in force until October 7, when a bench will hear the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) appeal. The hearing will test the agency’s claim that Mr. Vaze’s acts in 2021 amount to terrorism.

A Bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale stayed the bail order until the hearing on October 7. The Bench also asked the State government’s lawyer to inform the jail authorities, so that Mr. Vaze is not released in the meantime.

The Bench gave a reason for the pause. Mr. Vaze’s lawyers had appeared before the earlier Bench on the NIA’s notice, but no lawyer appeared for him on Wednesday (September 30, 2026). The judges said they were “inclined to grant an ad-interim stay” until the adjourned date and adjourned the hearing.

No. The Court has not decided whether Mr. Vaze deserves bail. The Special Court granted it, and the High Court suspended the effect of that grant while it examines the NIA’s challenge. If the High Court dismisses the appeal on October 7, the bail order revives. If it allows the appeal, the order is set aside.

The NIA moved the High Court on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) evening, and the appeal went through a series of recusals. Justice Sarang Kotwal, who had the roster to hear it, stepped aside on Tuesday (September 29, 2026). He said advocate Manoj Mohite had appeared for Mr. Vaze, and that he does not hear matters in which Mr. Mohite represents a party, as the two had worked together when Justice Kotwal practised as an advocate.

On Wednesday (September 30, 2026) morning, the appeal was listed before Justices Bharati Dangre and Ashish Chavan. Justice Dangre had recused herself in earlier proceedings filed by Mr. Vaze. She had passed an order in a case involving Mr. Vaze and Anil Deshmukh, Maharashtra’s former Home Minister, and the Bench noted a link to the matter. Justice Chavan said he had appeared for the Central Bureau of Investigation in a connected matter. The Bench directed that the appeal not be listed before it.

The NIA then approached Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, who assigned the appeal to the Bench led by Justice Kulkarni.

Antilia is the Mumbai residence of the Ambani family on Carmichael Road. In February 2021, a Scorpio SUV carrying gelatin sticks and a threat note was found parked near the building. The discovery set off a police search for the owner and the route the vehicle had taken.

The owner of the vehicle, Mansukh Hiran, a businessman from Thane, said the SUV had been stolen days before it surfaced near Antilia. In March 2021, his body was recovered from a creek in Mumbra, near Thane. His family and the Opposition in the Assembly demanded answers, and the State’s Anti-Terrorism Squad began a probe into his death. The NIA took over the case and arrested Mr. Vaze in March 2021 on the basis that he was a conspirator in both the placement of the vehicle and the killing.

The case now stands at the trial stage. The Court has framed charges against Mr. Vaze, ex-police officer Pradeep Sharma and eight others, who face trial for murder.

Mr. Vaze joined the Maharashtra Police as a Sub-Inspector in 1990 and was posted in Thane, where he served in the Crime Branch. He rose to a name in the force for his work in cases handled by the Mumbai Crime Branch and the units that dealt with the underworld. He resigned in 2007 and rejoined the force in June 2020, when he was brought back and placed in charge of the Mumbai Crime Intelligence Unit. At the time of the Antilia discovery, he held the rank of Assistant Police Inspector and headed that unit, which meant he was among the officers who responded to the report of the SUV.

The NIA arrested him within weeks. The force dismissed him from service in 2021. He has been in custody since then, booked under the Indian Penal Code for murder and criminal conspiracy, along with the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Arms Act.

In its appeal, the NIA described the Special Court’s ruling as “erroneous” and “illegal”. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the agency, argued before the bench that Mr. Vaze’s act in 2021 was a terrorist act.

The UAPA charge matters because bail under that law is harder to obtain than in an ordinary prosecution. A Court has to examine the material produced by the investigators before it grants release, and the NIA says the Special Court did not weigh the material correctly.

The Special Court granted bail on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) after Mr. Vaze had spent more than five years in custody. The order has not been read in the High Court yet, since the Bench passed the stay in the absence of Mr. Vaze’s lawyers. The reasoning, and the grounds on which the NIA calls it a mistake, will come before the court on October 7.

On October 7, the Kulkarni-led Bench will hear the NIA’s appeal with lawyers from both sides present. Mr. Vaze’s lawyers can argue that he has been in jail since 2021 and that the trial will take years to finish. The NIA can argue that the allegations against him fall within the UAPA and that the Special Court should have refused release. Until the Bench rules, he stays in Thane Central Prison.

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