Shooter who fired at director’s home still at large
Several modules which were not in direct contact with each other were involved in the attack, police said
MUMBAI: Police teams are still searching for the shooter who fired five rounds at the 10-storeyed residence of film producer and director Rohit Shetty in Juhu in the early hours on Sunday. The shooter fled the spot on a motorcycle, which he discarded outside Kings International Hotel in Vile Parle, and subsequently fled the city, officers from Mumbai crime branch which is probing the case told Hindustan Times.
On Monday, the four young men arrested from Pune on Sunday for abetting the attack were remanded in police custody till February 5.
“Several modules which were not in direct contact with each other were involved in the attack. One handled logistics such as delivery of the scooter, while the assailant who fired at the building was part of a different module,” a crime branch officer said, requesting anonymity.
All modules, however, were in touch with alleged Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Shubham Lonkar, who is a wanted accused in the 2024 Baba Siddique murder case, the officer noted.
Lonkar is believed to be hiding somewhere in China.
Among the four accused arrested on Sunday, two were in touch with Lonkar via the messaging app Signal, and they purchased the scooter used in the attack, a Honda Dio, for ₹30,000 using funds supplied by the fugitive gangster, investigators said.
“The scooter was purchased from Pune resident Aman Marote, who was detained along with the four arrested accused by Pune police on Sunday,” the officer quoted earlier said.
{{/usCountry}}“The scooter was purchased from Pune resident Aman Marote, who was detained along with the four arrested accused by Pune police on Sunday,” the officer quoted earlier said.
{{/usCountry}}Marote was served a notice and asked to appear later for questioning in the case, while the remaining four detainees were brought to the city by the crime branch and placed under arrest.
{{/usCountry}}Marote was served a notice and asked to appear later for questioning in the case, while the remaining four detainees were brought to the city by the crime branch and placed under arrest.
{{/usCountry}}Investigators suspect the following chain of events led to the firing incident at Shetty’s first-floor gym 12.40am on Sunday. The scooter was purchased from Marote a month ago, but its ownership was not transferred. Two days before the firing incident, it was brought from Pune to Mumbai by arrested accused Pomaji and Gayake and parked in Juhu. The shooter, from a different module, picked up the scooter later and discarded it outside Kings International Hotel in Vile Parle after executing the attack.
{{/usCountry}}Investigators suspect the following chain of events led to the firing incident at Shetty’s first-floor gym 12.40am on Sunday. The scooter was purchased from Marote a month ago, but its ownership was not transferred. Two days before the firing incident, it was brought from Pune to Mumbai by arrested accused Pomaji and Gayake and parked in Juhu. The shooter, from a different module, picked up the scooter later and discarded it outside Kings International Hotel in Vile Parle after executing the attack.
{{/usCountry}}The scooter was later recovered from the spot and seized by police.
On Monday, when the four arrested accused were produced before the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court, the prosecution claimed they were part of a criminal network linked to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is presently in jail.
The network was involved in many high-profile crimes, including the murder of former minister Baba Siddique on October 12, 2024 and the firing incident outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s Bandra residence on April 14, 2024; the present case was part of a larger conspiracy orchestrated by the network, the prosecution alleged.
The defence, however, sharply contested these claims. Advocate Ajay Dubey, appearing for the accused, argued that there was no material linking his clients either to the firing or to the Bishnoi gang. The arrests were made “solely on suspicion” and the prosecution’s case was based on tenuous inputs rather than concrete evidence, he argued.
“There is only an allegation that accused number one was in contact with Shubham Lonkar,” Dubey told the court. “Those who actually carried out the firing have not been arrested. These accused had no knowledge of the incident and did not even know that something like this was going to happen.”
Dubey further said that the accused were cooperating with investigators and denied any role in the alleged conspiracy.
Shetty’s residence, the 10-storeyed ‘Shetty Tower’, is located on Hasya Kalakar Mehmood Chowk in Juhu. CCTV footage from the area showed a man approaching the building on foot and opening fire with a weapon at 12.40am on Sunday, police said. Shetty was on the seventh floor at the time of the incident and no one was injured in the attack.
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