By: Shajil Kumar
TWO people were arrested in connection with the firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s residence in Mumbai on Sunday morning.
The duo – Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21) – both residents of Bihar state, were on the run after the incident.
They were apprehended late Monday from a village in Gujarat’s Kutch district, police said.
The suspects were brought to Mumbai and produced before a magistrate court on Tuesday.
The Mumbai police’s crime branch had sought 14-day custody of the two men to ascertain conspiracy details and to identify the mastermind.
The court, however, has granted police custody for nine days (till April 25).
The police had submitted to the court that the two accused opened fire outside Bollywood superstar’s house “in an attempt to kill him”.
On Sunday morning around 5 am, Gupta was riding the motorcycle and Pal, who was riding pillion, fired shots at the actor’s house.
The accused fired five rounds – one of them hit the wall and another the gallery of Khan’s residence.
The motorcycle was abandoned a kilometre away from the actor’s house, police said.
During preliminary questioning, the two arrested accepted that they had carried out the firing, the police said.
In their remand note, the police said, “Custody of the accused is required to probe if the accused had plans to attack anyone other than Salman Khan.”
The note further said the police are yet to recover the firearm used during the incident and a probe is also required about the motorcycle used by the accused.
The police said that after the incident a person had claimed responsibility on social media platform Facebook. This account was being operated from a foreign country, they added.
The post was uploaded allegedly by Anmol Bishnoi, the younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, according to the police.
During a press briefing, Mumbai’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam said the two accused had conducted a recce around the actor’s house three times before the incident. (PTI)
