Tiger Shroff firing case: 11 accused sent to police custody till November 6

The court said that the investigation needed to establish the accused’s respective roles and their alleged connections with the absconding accused and other members of the syndicate

MUMBAI: A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Thursday remanded 11 people arrested in connection with the firing incident at actor Tiger Shroff’s car to police custody till November 6, holding that investigators needed to trace the source of the weapons, establish the financial and logistical support behind the attack and investigate the accused’s alleged links with a wider organised crime syndicate led by absconding accused Anil Pandit, an alleged associate of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

The accused were produced before the court on Thursday. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

The prosecution told the court that two teams had operated simultaneously to execute the conspiracy – one was tasked with procuring weapons and the other with delivering them to the alleged shooters. Special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves sought 10 days of custody, arguing that further interrogation was necessary to establish the roles of the accused, trace their support network and identify others involved in the case.

The investigating officer, additional commissioner of police (ACP) Sadanand Rane of the Mumbai crime branch, told the court that the accused had used different modules to carry out criminal activities and employed concealed applications to keep their communications secret. He said the investigation had revealed the possible involvement of other persons and that a larger conspiracy could not be ruled out.

Opposing the plea, the defence argued that the accused had already undergone substantial custodial interrogation and that their mobile phones and weapons had been seized. The defence also submitted that their voice samples should have been collected by this stage, contending that further police custody would serve no useful purpose.

The court, however, found that the investigation had uncovered connections requiring further scrutiny. While weapons and digital material, including conversations and images, had been recovered, it said information gathered by investigators still needed to be verified.

“The investigating agency is required not only to collect evidence but also to verify the information gathered and investigate the alleged links between the persons involved,” special judge Satyanarayan R Navander observed.

The court said the possibility of more accused being involved and the wider ramifications of the alleged conspiracy remained to be investigated. It noted that the material collected so far indicated that “certain aspects of the alleged conspiracy remain to be investigated and verified”.

Rejecting the argument that the seizures already made rendered further custody unnecessary, the court held that the requirement for custodial interrogation could not be considered unjustified “merely because certain articles have already been seized and digital material has been retrieved”.

The court said that the investigation needed to establish the accused’s respective roles and their alleged connections with the absconding accused and other members of the syndicate. It granted police custody till November 6, a shorter period than the 10 days sought by the prosecution.

The 11 accused were re-arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on Tuesday, after the Mumbai police invoked the stringent law against them in connection with the firing.

The case relates to the October 18 firing in Mumbai’s Juhu area, when two shooters allegedly fired five rounds at Shroff’s car as he was leaving a football ground. The actor escaped largely unhurt, while his driver and a bystander sustained bullet injuries.

Police have named Anil Pandit, an alleged associate of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who claimed responsibility for the firing via social media posts, as a wanted accused.