n Less than 48 hours after they fired in front of Bollywood super star Salman Khan’s Bandra residence, the Mumbai police crime branch sleuths arrested two shooters from Bhuj town in Gujarat and brought them to Mumbai, where they were remanded by a city court to police custody till April 25.
Identifying the two arrested shooters as Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Shrijogendra Pal (23), Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam said that acting on the technical inputs, a team of Mumbai police — along with the Gujarat police – traced the two accused to Bhuj town in Gujarat where were hiding in a temple.
After their arrest on Monday, the two accused were flown to Mumbai in an aircraft on Tuesday morning. Later in the day, the two were produced before a city court which sent them to police custody for nine days. Two motorcycle-borne miscreants, who were covering their faces with helmets, had opened five rounds of fire outside his Bandra (west) residence “Galaxy Apartment” in north-west Mumbai at 4.50 am on Sunday, before speeding away immediately after the shoot-out.
Talking to media persons here, Gautam said: “After the firing incident, incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s younger brother Anmol Bishnoi had in a Facebook post claimed responsibility for the firing near Salman Khan’s home. During the investigations, we found that the two accused had fled to Gujarat. Immediately thereafter, we sent two teams to Gujarat”.
“While on the trail of the two accused, we found the location of them in Bhuj. Since we learnt that the two accused were in possession of dangerous weapons, we did not want to take chances. Together with the Bhuj police, we arrested the two accused,” Gautam said.
Both Gupta and Pal belong to Champaran in Bihar. “Ahead of the firing incident, the accused had carried out a recce of Salman Khan’s house at least thrice,” Gautam said.
After the incident, the accused abandoned the motorbike and they headed to Bandra Railway Station.
“They first took a train to Santa Cruz, from where they went to Mira Road by an autorickshaw. Later on, they proceeded to Surat from where they took a train to Bhuj,” a senior police officer said.
Having scanned the footage of the CCTV cameras located in northern suburbs of the city, the investigators made the most of the tech-intel and inputs received from their informers to zero in on the two accused in a temple at Bhuj.
The city police had formed 15 teams to crack the case. One of the teams managed to track the motorcycle and its registration to the neighbouring Raigad district. The Navi Mumbai Police detained the two persons who claimed they had sold it to the two shooters
The investigations have revealed that Gupta and Pal had rented a flat at Navi Mumbai and lived there for 25 days and did reconnaissance of Salman’s residence thrice, before committing the shootout outside Khan’s residence early on Sunday morning. In the initial questioning, Gupta and Pal have reportedly confessed to the firing. The police have recovered a pistol and other items of the crime from the two accused.
In a related development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited Khans’ Bandra (west) residence “Galaxy Apartment” in north-west Mumbai and assured the Khan family that there was nothing to fear.
“The Maharashtra government and the police are responsible for your safety and security. The police will investigate the incident thoroughly and ensure that the culprits are punished,” the Chief Minister told the Khan family.
