The Mumbai Police early on Friday registered an FIR and launched a massive manhunt to track the two persons who abandoned an SUV with 20 gelatin sticks near the landmark Antilia building, the home of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
The development came after the discovery of the SUV was found parked near a tree close to the Antilia building, the lavish multi-storied house of the Ambani family in south Mumbai on Thursday, rattling the country’s political, corporate and security establishments.
The vehicle was discovered only at around 2 p.m. on Thursday by some alert persons in the vicinity, nearly 12 hours after it remained unattended, sparking off suspicions and triggering a chain of reactions. The mystery vehicle, which has been seized by the police – bears a registration number similar to a vehicle which is part of the Ambani family’s security detail and a letter was found from it.
As per an ABP news report, the threatening letter is addressed to Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita, and says, “You and your family better behave. All arrangements have been made to blow you up.” A bag with a Mumbai Indians logo (the IPL cricket team owned by Ambani) was also found in the Scorpio SUV, which was reportedly stolen outside Maharashtra and had a duplicate number plate matching a car owned by the businessman. The gelatin sticks have a Nagpur company’s name on them, the report adds.
The report also reveals that the SUV was observed (probably through CCTV) to have stopped for 10 minutes at the Haji Ali traffic signal, near Worli, around 12.20 AM on Wednesday/Thursday night.
Mumbai Police Spokesperson, DCP S. Chaitanya said late on Thursday that the gelatin sticks recovered were “not an assembled explosive device” but the exact detail of the risk they posed would be known after a thorough probe.
Efforts are on to trace the two persons who parked the SUV there, from where they came, what were their motives, or who or what were their intended targets, etc., officials said. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, home and intelligence department top officers are monitoring the probe.
The FIR was registered at the Gamdevi Police Station invoking Indian Penal Code Sec. 286, 465, 473, 120(b), 506(2) pertaining to explosives, forgery, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation, and Sec. 4 of Explosives Substance Act for attempt to cause explosion, or for making or keeping it with intent to endanger life or property.
The Antilia building and the south Mumbai neighbourhood houses the who’s who of the Bharat’s corporate world, top politicians, official or private residences of various bigwigs, government officials, diplomats, people from the glamour industry and others.
Hate speech against Ambani-Adani
Mukesh Ambani and another big businessman from Gujarat, Gautam Adani, have been demonised in recent times during various Opposition-led political protests as symbols of crony capitalists allegedly benefiting from the Narendra Modi led government. Other capitalists like Bajaj, Tata, Birla, Godrej do not attract even a fraction of the hate these two do, despite past evidence (for eg. Radia tapes) of their involvement in crony capitalist deal making; reason is clear – they are either openly aligned with the Congress ecosystem, or signal through remarks and funding that they will toe the line on pet left-liberal issues.
But remember, it’s not that Ambani and Adani have funded any Hindu cause, but just that they have not overtly bought into the anti-Hindu narrative which is enough to anger the left-liberal fascists.
During the manufactured Rafale controversy, the younger Ambani brother, Anil, was targeted; who ironically is a Samajwadi Party camp follower. Then the illegal Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protests saw Ambani-bashing and calls to boycott Reliance protests. But it has been the farmers’ protest where Ambani-Adani have become mass hate symbols. No other corporate has been targeted in the manner these two have. Reliance Jio cell towers were vandalised across Punjab, and even generator sets at these towers stolen and taken to Gurudwaras.
The toolkit created with assistance of Khalistani outfits like Canada’s Poetic Justice Foundation even contained a website where people could see list of products manufactured by Ambani-Adani, in order to boycott them. Leading Opposition politicians have also taken irresponsible potshots at the two businessmen, ignoring how in the past they or their state governments have appealed to the same men for investments. Among Communist and Islamist circles, the two names evoke an almost visceral hatred.
In such a climate of hate against wealth creators, one of whom has truly democratized telecommunications through his dirt cheap mobile data revolution, such bomb threats should sadly come as no surprise.
Incidentally, just last week two members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) who were planning a series of terrorist attacks at various places in the country were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force with a huge quantity of explosives. And just today, Railway Protection Force (RPF) seized 117 gelatin sticks and 350 detonators from a woman passenger travelling in a train from Chennai to Thalassery in the restive Kannur district of North Kerala.
(With IANS inputs)
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