Tiger Shroff shooting case: Bike purchase, phone trail lead cops to 3 suspects in Jaipur

Police said the accused were promised ₹37,000 for the attack and a chance to flee abroad, possibly to Nepal, after reaching Delhi.

The three assailants who shot at actor Tiger Shroff outside a football ground at Juhu were arrested from aboard a Jaipur-bound express train at Kota junction by a team of Rajasthan police on Monday afternoon.

On Monday, police recovered the bike used in the crime from a spot near Andheri station (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

Evidence and details of the shooting

In Mumbai, the police seized the Bajaj Pulsar bike used by the trio to carry out the attack and also recovered 5 bullet cases and two live cartridges from the crime scene. A sophisticated Turkey-made Zigana handgun and a country-made pistol was used to shoot at Shroff, 36, said an investigator speaking to HT off-the-record. “Tiger was lucky to escape unscathed from this attack. One bullet got lodged in the bonnet and the other did not pierce the windshield.” Weekend vlogger Umesh Chauhan, 35, who was injured is in the ICU at KEM Hospital with a bullet lodged in his chest.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the media in Nagpur that the “Cowards behind the attack would not be spared.” His deputy Eknath Shinde said the government will not shy away from using a “bullet for bullet police” should the need arise.

The panchnama conducted on Monday by the Anti Extortion Cell and Juhu police revealed that the bullets did not hit the front windshield of Shroff’s BMW directly, which was parked behind the Santacruz police station. Bullet casings were found on the left side of the windscreen, while Shroff was seated in the front passenger seat. One bullet struck his driver-caretaker, Firdaus Ibrahim Baloch, 48, on his left hand, while two bullets entered the car. Shroff narrowly escaped the firing incident, sustaining minor bruises from shattered windscreen glass.

Suspects and alleged getaway plan

The arrested trio have been identified by the police as 18-year-olds Phool Singh and Rehan Ansari from Sonipat in Haryana, and 22-year-old Hrithik Kumar aka Roshan Ramu Mahto from Bihar who worked in Mumbai with Rapido. A spokesperson for the company told HT: “We are deeply concerned by the incident involving Mr. Tiger Shroff and his team, and we are relieved that he is safe. We wish him a swift recovery. We are aware of media reports mentioning an individual registered as a captain on the Rapido platform. He has not been active as a captain on our platform since 14th October. As is common in India’s larger gig economy, individuals may be registered with several platforms at the same time. On the day of the incident, the individual had used Rapido’s services as a customer”. The company, he added, was cooperating with the investigators.

On Monday, a magistrate court in Kota gave a three-day transit remand to the Mumbai crime branch which is investigating the case. According to the police the three men had carried out a reconnaissance earlier in the week of the football ground where Shroff came to play football every Sunday.

While Phool Singh and Rehan Ansari fired at the Shroff’s car as he exited the ground on Sunday evening, Mahto waited close by on a yellow Pulsar bike for their getaway. They abandoned the bike once they reached DN Nagar at Andheri from where they walked to the local station and boarded a local train to Kandivali. After getting down at Kandivali they hired a taxi to Surat where they got into a general compartment of the Pune-Jaipur express at 1.30 am. According to Tejaswini Gautam, SP, Kota, their interrogation revealed that the trio had plans to flee abroad - possibly to Nepal – after getting down at Delhi.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis warned that those behind the shooting would not be spared. (HT GFX)

Addressing a press conference, the Kota police claimed that they had received information about the assailants from Mumbai police at 9.30am on Monday after which they reached the railway station and arrested the trio. On being questioned, they told the police that they were promised ₹37,000 for the hit and were also told that they would be sent abroad and their future would be secured.

The two 18-year-olds Phool Singh and Rehan Ansari have past criminal records. Phool Singh had stolen a bike in Sonepat while Ansari had a case registered against him in Rajastahn under the Arms Act. A crime branch officer told HT that the third man, Hrithik Kumar, had purchased the second-hand Bajaj Pulsar bike for ₹25,000 on September 11, and that the police obtained his mobile number from its owner, who was yet to transfer the two-wheeler in Kumar’s name. Kumar’s active mobile number made it easier for the police to track his movements and that of his accomplices.

How police tracked the trio

“We tracked the footage of the train, identified the bogie in which the trio was travelling and passed on the information to the Rajasthan police, which led to their arrest,” said a senior crime branch officer. According to railway officials, a team of RPF and GRP was formed based on inputs received from the police. “The surveillance footage was checked at various stations after which they were tracked from Surat railway station. The team of rail police along with local police apprehended them at Kota the next day, at around 10.15 am,” said a Western Railway official.

He added that Ansari was in touch with Anil Pandit, a Lawrence Bishnoi gang member, who claimed responsibility for orchestrating the attack along with fellow gangster Harman Sandhu. While Sandhu who is at large had claimed responsibility for the firing at singer Guru Randhawa’s gym in Delhi earlier this year, Anil Pandit is a Bishnoi gang operative allegedly holed up in California.

19 oct tiger shroff timeline

Social media threat

“We had earlier called and explained to him (Tiger Shroff) but he did not understand. So today, we explained to him rather well that whoever in the Mumbai film industry does not abide by what we say or who works with Salman Khan will be next in line. Wait and watch,” the two men allegedly claimed in a post in Hindi on social media.

The attack triggered a political row in Maharashtra, with Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora describing it as deeply disturbing and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut accusing the state government of failing to maintain law and order.

“There is jungle raj in Mumbai and the state. Law and order has collapsed. Mumbai faced extortion, firing, kidnapping and gang war in the 1990s and the same days are coming back now,” Raut said, adding that Maharashtra needed a full-time home minister.

Responding to the criticism, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “Have they forgotten how their ministers had to go to jail? Even the country’s biggest industrialist was not safe during their tenure as a bomb was planted outside his house.”

With additional inputs from Shashank Rao

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