MUMBAI: Nearly four months after an explosives-laden Scorpio SUV was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai residence 'Antilia' on February 25 the National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigating the case today arrested former 'encounter specialist' police officer Pradeep Sharma. 

The central agency claims that Sharma was accused in the case pertaining to the murder of Mansukh Hian the owner of the Scorpio whose body was found under suspicious conditions in Thane's Mumbra creek on March 5 a few days after he had come claiming that his vehicle been stolen. 

While seeking Sharma’s custody, public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves told the court that Sharma had misled the investigators when he was questioned on two occasions and that the agency has very 'concrete evidence' against him. 

According to the agency, the name of Sharma cropped up after the interrogation of two of his confidantes, Santosh Shelar and Anand Jadhav who were arrested on June 11 

According to sources in the agency, Hiran was murdered by smothering him to death in a Tavera car belonging to Anand Jadhav and they have retrieved CCTV footage from Ghodbunder road in Thane where sacked API Sachin Waze and former constable Sunil Mane were seen handing over Mansukh to the four accused waiting in the Tavera after which he was murdered and his body dumped in 

The agency also claims that Sharma has attended two conspiracy meetings with Waze to discuss the plans to kill Hiran, one was held at the police commissioner’s office in Crawford Market two days before his murder and another at Sharma's JB Nagar office in Andheri.

A 1983 batch police officer, Sharma has reportedly killed over 100 criminals in 'encounter' killings during his service. In August 2008 he was dismissed for his alleged links with the underworld but was reinstated in May 2009 following the orders of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT).

In 2010 Sharma was arrested for the 2006 'fake' encounter of alleged gangster Lakhan Bhaiya and spent almost four years behind bars in the case before being acquitted by a court in July 2013 and was again reinstated in the police force in 2017.