MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday concluded the hearing of an appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against bail granted by a trial court to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze and reserved the matter for orders. A special bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale had stayed the bail order and will finally decide if it needs to be upheld or set aside.The special NIA trial judge who on Sept 29 had directed the release of Waze had, in holding that the offence of a ‘terrorist act’ was prima facie not made out, never considered in its proper perspective what the chargesheet contained.Waze is the main accused in the Feb 25, 2021 Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case. There were gelatin sticks in the car and a threat note which went into the political arena, said the Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for NIA, who stressed that threatening the richest family was intended to send a larger message in an act likely to threaten the security or economic security or strike terror in the community.Waze was arrested on March 13, 2021 and has been behind bars since, making the long incarceration also a ground for his bail, apart from the lack of detonators rendering it not a terror act and thus not attracting the stringent UAPA, his counsel VM Thorat argued. He said the trial can’t start till all forensic reports are in.For NIA, Singh, however, said charges were framed and trial can start soon. He also said it “is not a private matter. The explosive has been proved by a forensic report.” Singh said the UAPA Act is worded such that lack of detonator doesn’t take away from the terror act.
