Thread by @BiIndia

The probe into the threat to #MukeshAmbani⁠ has already claimed a life ⁠— here’s a look at the characters in India’s latest potboiler

businessinsider.in/india/news/the…

By @iyer_sriram

On February 25, a car with gelatin sticks (can be used to make explosives) and a threatening letter, was found outside Antilla⁠ — it has 27 storeys, 400,000 square feet, and is worth over $1 bn ⁠— the home of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, the owner of Reliance Industries.

The death of the car’s owner has taken the story from a series of ridiculous tales and conjectures to a murky account constantly stirred by political opportunism. The authenticity of the original threat, or the possible motive behind it...

...remains a mystery as the case has been taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the local cops.

As in any mystery, while the plot unravels, let’s take a look at the key characters involved in the case and what they have to say.

👉​Mukesh Ambani

The alleged letter that was found in the car, with the gelatin sticks, allegedly asked Ambani to cough up some money in cryptocurrencies.

Both Ambani and his company have remained largely quiet despite all the clamour, conspiracy theories around the incident.

👉​Terrorists

Right after the car was found outside Ambani, an organisation named Jaish-ul-Hind claimed responsibility for the explosives. However, soon after, the ‘real’ Jaish-ul-Hind reportedly denied its role in the incident.

Sources in the Intelligence Bureau told the Times of India that no such organisation existed. But now, the latest revelations say that the Telegram channel through which the first statement was released was created in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

👉​Nana Patole from Congress for comic relief

Congress leader Nana Patole has alleged that the entire episode is a hogwash generated to allow Ambani permission to land choppers on the helipads he already has.

For the record, the shares of Reliance Industries have gained over 90% in the last one year, and have been largely stable since September 2020 when the farmers’ protest started gaining momentum.

👉​Mansukh Hiren

The green-coloured Mahindra Scorpio that surfaced outside Ambani’s residence was in the possession of Mansukh Hiren who owned a car renovation showroom in Thane, a city just outside Mumbai.

➡️Hiren had kept the car because his client, and the owner of the car, Sam Newton, had not paid for the work.

➡️Hiren told the cops that the car had been missing and he had reported it to the police before it was found outside the Ambani residence.

➡️Soon after, Hiren mysteriously disappeared until his corpse was found floating in a creek outside the city on March 4.

➡️While the Mumbai Police was quick to write it off as suicide, the post mortem, reportedly, did not clearly show that he had drowned...

...and there were abrasions on the face, which could have been caused by the victim’s struggle in the face of an attack.

👉Hiren’s wife Vimla

➡️Vimla told the cops that the night he disappeared, he had gone out to meet his friend Sachin Vaze, a top cop in the Mumbai Crime Branch who has since been transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Centre.

➡️According to her, Vaze was a regular client at her late husband’s shop and that he had borrowed the same car in November last year.

➡️The cop admitted to knowing Hiren but he also said that “he hadn’t met him in recent times”.

➡️Vaze’s history before this case is a series of fascinating, gray tales, some of which will follow in the next slide.

👉Sachin Vaze

➡️Flashback! Vaze earned his reputation as an encounter specialist in the late 1990s when killing criminals and suspects on the go was considered “cool,” especially in Maharashtra.

➡️Playing fast and loose caught up with him eventually. Vaze (along with 17 others) was suspended from the force in 2004 after Khwaja Yunus, a suspect in the Ghatkopar bomb blast case, died in custody. The trial is underway.

➡️Cut to the present, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis...

...has accused Vaze of destroying evidence related to Hiren’s murder. “I suspect he was murdered in a car and his body was thrown into the creek,” he said.

➡️With the NIA entering the probe into Hiren’s death, Vaze has been transferred out of the Mumbai Crime Branch.

👉Uddhav Thackeray and Devendra Fadnavis

The current Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, took a bold step in 2019 by breaking up with his party’s long-term ally BJP.

Thackeray lost a friend (who he shared ideology with) to stay in power with support from rivals like the Nationalist Congress Party and the Indian National Congress.

Since then, the Sena has been squeezed between reluctant friends and a keen enemy in BJP.

After bidding some time initially, Thackeray has, seemingly, decided to take the fight to BJP by targeting the same pawns used by the BJP.

From Vaze’s crackdown on a pro-BJP media outfit to the demolition of actor Kangana Ranaut’s Bandra office, the steps taken...

...by the authorities in Maharashtra are being seen as Sena’s backlash against its former ally.

The threat to the Ambanis and the subsequent death of Hiren have just given the two sides more ammunition to fire at each other.