Ambani bomb scare: Found 62 bullets at Sachin Vaze’s home reveals, NIA

The National Investigation Agency on Thursday told a court in Mumbai that it had found 62 unaccounted bullets from the home of suspended Mumbai Police crime branch officer Sachin Vaze, who has been jailed in connection with the Mukesh Ambani security threat case, NDTV reported.

The investigation agency asked the court to extend Vaze’s custody, which is supposed to end on Thursday. On Thursday evening, the agency was allowed to keep Vaze in custody till April 9.

“Only five of the 30 bullets given for his [Vaze’s] service revolver have been found,” the NIA told the court, according to NDTV. “The accused is not telling where the rest went.”

The NIA also said that it needed to go through a huge amount of call record data, since Vaze had allegedly destroyed his phone, according to India Today. The agency had sought 15 more days of the suspended officer’s custody.

“I have been made scapegoat, have nothing to do with this case,” Vaze said in court, according to PTI.

On Wednesday, the NIA had invoked the stringent stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Vaze.

He was charged under Sections 16 (recruiting any person for commission of a terrorist act) and 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Act.

Vaze had been arrested by the NIA on March 13 after being questioned about his alleged links with auto parts dealer Mansukh Hiren, the reported owner of the SUV that was found outside Ambani’s house Antilia last month. A day later, he was sent to NIA custody till March 25.

Hiren was found dead near Mumbai on March 5. His wife had alleged that Vaze, the first investigating officer in the bomb scare case, had used the car found outside Ambani’s residence for four months and returned it on February 5. She had also accused Vaze of having a role in her husband’s death.

Last week, the Centre had handed over the inquiry into Hiren’s death to the central agency. The NIA is already investigating the case related to the recovery of the explosives. Twenty gelatin sticks were recovered from a black Scorpio found less than two kilometres from Ambani’s multi-storey home Antilia on February 25. The police had said that the gelatin recovered from the car was the commercial type that is used in mining and construction.