Mumbai/Kota: Three people who allegedly fired at actor Tiger Shroff were nabbed Monday from a train at the Kota station following a swift 15-minute operation while possibly on their way to Nepal from Mumbai.
The three, including Ritik alias Roshan from Begusarai in Bihar and Rehan from Haryana’s Sonipat, were picked up from the general coach of the Pune-Jaipur Superfast Express when it halted in Kota at 10.17 am, said Kota Superintendent of Police (SP) Tejaswani Gautam.
Kota city police handed over the three to a Mumbai Police team, which arrested them and produced them before a magistrate for transit remand to take them to Maharashtra capital.
SP Gautam said that according to the date of birth provided by one of the accused, he was nearly a month short of turning 18. “However, during questioning and verification, it was established that he had already attained the age of 18. All three accused have now been arrested by Mumbai Police, which has also obtained their transit remand,” the SP told PTI.
As the investigation into the incident Sunday evening in Mumbai’s Juhu area gathered pace, police added that Rehan was in touch with Anil Pandit, an alleged associate of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that claimed responsibility in an unverified social media post.
Giving details at a press conference in Mumbai in the evening, a senior police official also denied earlier reports that one of the three nabbed is a minor. “One is 18 years old and the other two are 22 years old,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Raj Tilak Roshan.
“Five to six rounds were fired at Tiger Shroff’s car,” he said, adding that a motorcycle used by them was found in Andheri.
The shooting targeting the popular War star on a busy Sunday evening was captured on video, the clip showing gunshots being fired at close range at his car. While the 36-year-old, who is also veteran actor Jackie Shroff’s son, escaped relatively unhurt, his driver and a bystander were injured.
A purported audio clip in which Pandit, a 32-year-old US-based gangster from Panipat, is heard claiming Tiger Shroff was attacked because he ignored warnings not to work with superstar Salman Khan was circulated widely across several media platforms.
Pandit can be heard demanding an apology from Salman Khan to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and community. The star was allegedly involved in the shooting of a blackbuck, sacred to the Bishnoi community, in 1998.
If there was no apology, others in the film fraternity close to the star would also be targeted, Pandit threatens.
Pandit has been linked to extortion, firing incidents, and threats across Delhi, Pune, Haryana, Canada, Thailand and Dubai.
PTI cannot vouch for the authenticity of the clip.
Giving details of the operation to arrest those involved in the shooting, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “The accused fled towards Surat after the firing and subsequently boarded a train bound for Jaipur.
“Mumbai police tracked their movements, contacted Rajasthan police and secured their interception at Kota railway station with the assistance of the local police.”
The police will bring them to Mumbai after completing necessary legal formalities. “Everyone involved in this will be traced. No one will be spared,” the chief minister asserted.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut raised the “regime change” slogan of the opposition while slamming Fadnavis, who handles the Home portfolio, over what he claimed was a spate of shootings, murders, extortion and kidnappings in the state.
“People are being murdered every day in Maharashtra. We are questioning the government about these incidents, and that is why we are demanding regime change,” Raut told reporters here.
Mumbai Police said cases under the attempt to murder and Arms Act sections have been filed against the accused.
The primary questioning was done at the SP’s office in Kota. The suspects told police that they boarded the train after “executing the crime”, the Kota SP told reporters.
They were planning to take a bus from Jaipur to Delhi and then cross the border to reach Nepal, she added.
No weapon was recovered from the suspects, she said.
As details emerged, Rehan’s father Raisuddin told reporters in Haryana on Monday that his son, a Class 9 dropout, was out on bail in an Arms Act case.
“He has not been living with me for nearly 10 years… He has been living with his mother in Devdu village. He was booked in a case related to a gun a few months ago and his mother, who works in a factory, arranged bail for him,” said Raisuddin, a daily wager.
The shooting sent shockwaves through the film fraternity. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) said it raised serious concerns about the safety and security of film personalities.
“It is deeply disturbing that this is the second such incident involving a prominent personality from the film industry, following the earlier firing incident involving renowned filmmaker Mr Rohit Shetty (in February this year),” read a statement issued by FWICE.
It asked for an impartial and time-bound investigation into the incident involving Shroff “so that those responsible are identified and brought to justice”.
The All India Cine Workers Association said this was not an isolated incident. “Today, it is Tiger Shroff. Who is next? When a celebrity is not safe in the heart of Mumbai, how can an ordinary Mumbaikar feel safe,” it said in a statement.
Born Jai Hemant Shroff on March 2, 1990, Shroff is one of Bollywood’s premier action stars and martial artists, holding a 5th-degree black belt in Taekwondo. He debuted with the film “Heropanti” in 2014 and cemented his status as an action hero with films like “Baaghi”, “Baaghi 2” and the YRF Spy Universe hit “War”.
He and Salman Khan have never worked together in any film. But the Bollywood superstar and his father are close friends and have starred together in many films.
On Sunday night, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said after meeting Shroff that time had come to uproot criminal networks once again.
“It will be tit for tat, bullets for bullets,” he said.
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