TWO ARRESTED FROM GUJARAT FOR FIRING AT BOLLYWOOD STAR SALMAN KHAN’S MUMBAI HOME

Tue 16 April 2024:

Two persons including a man who allegedly opened fire outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s residence in Mumbai have been arrested from Gujarat, police said on Tuesday.

The Bishnoi gang, accused of several murders and extortion rackets, hails from a wider desert-based religious sect that considers the species to be the reincarnation of their guru.

The duo was produced on Tuesday before a magistrate’s court in Mumbai.

The two persons – Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21) – both residents of Bihar, were nabbed late Monday night from Mata No Madh village in Gujarat’s Kutch district, Deputy Inspector General of Kutch-West, Mahendra Bagadiya, said.

Based on technical surveillance, joint teams of the Kutch-West and Mumbai police nabbed the duo, he said.

They had rented a house for a month in Navi Mumbai’s Panvel, where the actor has a farmhouse, an official said on Monday.

The police on Monday questioned three persons from Navi Mumbai, including the house owner, the previous owner of the two-wheeler used in the crime, the agent who facilitated the sale, and several others as part of the probe into the firing incident, the official said.

Khan, 58, has been in the crosshairs of the group since 1998 for shooting two blackbucks on a recreational hunting trip.

The gang’s jailed leader Lawrence Bishnoi has threatened Khan with assassination in the past.

Two men on a motorbike shot at Khan’s first-floor apartment during the early hours of Sunday in the upscale Mumbai neighbourhood of Bandra, also firing several rounds in the air before fleeing.

The motorbike was abandoned near Mount Mary Church in Mumbai, a little over a kilometre from the actor’s house, the police said.

A Facebook post claiming responsibility for the firing surfaced at around 11 am on Sunday.

The IP (Internet Protocol) address of the FB post was traced to Portugal and the police were verifying it, a senior official said on Monday.

Khan, who is always guarded by armed policemen owing to threats to his life, was home when the gunshots were fired.

The two men aged 24 and 21 were arrested on Tuesday in the western state of Gujarat, police said.

“We were able to locate the two accused near a temple,” Kutch district police officer Mahendra Bagaria said. “One of our teams reached the temple and nabbed the accused.”

Prima facie, the shooters had conducted a recce around the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra a few days ago, he said.

Police suspect a VPN (virtual private network) was used for uploading the Facebook post, allegedly by Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi on Sunday, he said.

A VPN establishes a digital connection between a computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts personal data, masks IP addresses, and allows the user to sidestep website blocks and firewalls on the Internet.

Khan’s personal life has long been dogged by controversy.

In 2002, he allegedly ran over five people sleeping on the pavement in an upmarket Mumbai neighbourhood, killing one, in a late-night hit-and-run.

He was cleared, but authorities challenged his acquittal in 2016 and the case is still continuing.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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