Mumbai, Feb 15 (PTI) A special court here on Saturday refused to discharge former `encounter specialist' police officer Pradeep Sharma from the cases related to the 2021 Antilia bomb scare incident and subsequent murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran.

A M Patil, special judge for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases, said the court cannot, at this stage, accept Sharma's contention that he was falsely implicated.

Prima facie the case pertains to a larger conspiracy allegedly hatched by the accused persons, and it can not be concluded at this stage that the evidence of the witnesses and documentary evidence were fabricated, the judge said.

The court will pass a detailed order later.

Sharma had claimed in his plea that he was in no way connected to the offence registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

There was no case made out to even frame charges against him and mere suspicion was not enough, he said.

Sharma was arrested in the case in June 2021. The Supreme Court granted him bail in August 2023.

On February 25, 2021, an SUV with explosives inside was found parked near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's multi-storey residence 'Antilia' in south Mumbai.

While the probe was on, businessman Mansukh Hiran, who claimed that the SUV was last in his possession before it was stolen, was found dead under mysterious circumstance in a creek in neighbouring Thane on March 5, 2021.

Investigating agencies alleged that Sharma, along with dismissed police officer Sachin Waze and some others, had hatched the entire conspiracy. PTI SP KRK

Discharge plea in terror-related prosecution rejected as prima facie conspiracy evidence sustains charges against accused. The special NIA court refused to discharge the accused in the Antilia bomb scare and related death, finding a prima facie case of a larger conspiracy and rejecting the claim of false implication; the accused denied connection to the offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and had been arrested in 2021 before receiving bail from the Supreme Court, while a detailed order is reserved.