SUV bomb scare case: Does the buck stop with Pradeep Sharma?

The National Investigation Agency NIA investigating the Mukesh Ambani threat and Mansukh Hiran murder cases has not ruled out the arrest of other officers who may have masterminded the conspiracy and instructed former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and his close aide dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Waze The agencyrsquos suspicions about othersrsquo involvement are growing stronger after Sharma and his close aide Santosh Shelarrsquos arrestThe NIA covered the gates of its office with a plastic sheet to prevent photojournalists from seeing anything inside PicSuresh KarkeraThe NIA initially suspected Waze to be the mastermind Now it says that both Waze and Sharma are the main conspirators and have not ruled out the involvement of others including a senior officer ldquoThese two are conspirators but we cannot rule out the involvement of others till the time we complete our investigation and file a charge sheetrdquo an NIA officer saidThe agencyrsquos suspicions are growing stronger after the arrest of Sharma and his close aide Santosh Shelar ldquoEveryone is being probed and our investigation is underway The entire conspiracy is deeprooted and requires thorough investigation The arrested police officers are doing their best to mislead usrdquo the officer saidAccording to the source Internet Protocol Detail Records IPDR analysis helped the NIA arrest Sharma who had been on their radar since the beginning of the probe The NIA says Sharma misled them on everything by saying that he didnrsquot know any of the arrested accused The agency became more suspicious when he claimed he never communicated with Waze He made similar claims before the court on Wednesday but the agencyrsquos IPDR analysis found evidence to suggest he was in touch with Waze and the other accused who eliminated businessman Hiran in MarchMaha ATSrsquos inputs crucialCall Detail Records CDR and IPDR analysis form the concrete evidence which the NIA said it has gathered against Sharma According to the NIA Sharma allegedly was in touch with Hiranrsquos killers and involved in the planting of the Scorpio car laden with explosive material near Antilia Mukesh Ambanirsquos residence According to sources Sharmarsquos role surfaced during the Maharashtra ATSrsquos investigation too but the case was transferred to NIA when it was in the initial stages of the probe Sources said that the Maharashtra ATSrsquos inputs were instrumental in the NIA establishing Sharmarsquos role Shelarrsquos arrest and IPDR analysis were the other crucial links leading to his arrestWaze had procured 1214 SIM cards through a coaccused bookie Naresh Gor to use in the crime Some of them were seized by the ATS and some by NIA One of the SIM cards was used to call Hiran and its last location was found to be near Sharmarsquos residence on March 4 The NIA has done an IPDR analysis of all those numbers ldquoThe IPDR analysis was instrumental in establishing some hidden facts of the caserdquo a source said The agency asked the court for maximum custody of Sharma based on the analysisldquoWe need to do a face to face confrontation of other accused with Sharma to reveal the truth of the caserdquo the source addedOn Friday the NIA also beefed up security at its Peddar Road office It covered the gates with a plastic sheet to prevent photojournalists from seeing anything and deployed CRPF jawansWhat is IPDRCybercrime investigator and founder V4WEB Cybersecurity Ritesh Bhatia said ldquoInternet Protocol Detail Records IPDR are logs generated and maintained by telecom service providers for every subscriber accessing the internet via their network IPDR provide a mobilersquos IMEI nodevice ID the originating IP address destination IP address which websiteplatform was visitedused location date and time Such information is very useful while investigating cases as it provides location and device details of the userrdquo14Approx no of SIMs Waze got which were seized and analysed