Mumbai police trace driver of car whose passenger asked for Mukesh Ambani’s residence location

PTI, Nov 9, 2021, 5:39 PM IST

Mumbai police have traced the driver of a car whose passenger had asked a cabbie about the location of industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence ‘Antilia’, an official said on Tuesday.

The driver of that car, a private cab, was brought to the Azad Maidan police station for questioning after the vehicle were traced to neighbouring Navi Mumbai late Monday night, the official said.

Security was beefed up on Monday outside industrialist Ambani’s residence after a taxi driver informed the police that two suspected passengers in a vehicle carrying bags with them had asked him about the location of ‘Antilia’, a 27-storey building located on Altamout Road in south Mumbai. The taxi driver was standing near Killa court in south Mumbai when a car had pulled over and its occupants asked him about the location of Ambani’s residence.

The two passengers in the car were speaking in Urdu and carrying two bags with them, an official earlier said, quoting the cabbie who called up the police control room. On Monday night, the police traced the car to Navi Mumbai, another official said. They also found its driver and brought him to the police station here for questioning, he said. The car’s passenger had left for Gujarat from where he came recently and stayed at a relative’s place in Navi Mumbai, the official said.

This passenger had on Monday asked his friend – the car driver – to take him to Mumbai. After visiting a couple of places here, the map on their phones developed a glitch following which the passenger asked a taxi driver about the way to ‘Antilia’, the official said.

Finding their movement suspicious, the taxi driver dialled the police control room and alerted them. The police initially tried to trace the car with the number provided by the taxi driver, but it was incorrect, the official said. They later identified the car with the help of CCTV footage and traced it to Navi Mumbai, official said. In February this year, an explosives-laden SUV was found parked outside ‘Antilia’, triggering panic.