29 April,2024 04:19 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Salman Khan (L) and Mumbai Police officials outside his house after firing incident. File Pic
A special court in Mumbai has remanded three accused, arrested in the Salman Khan house firing incident, to police custody till May 8. The three accused sent to police custody are Vicky Gupta, aged 24, Sagar Pal (21) and Anuj Thapan (32).
According to a report in PTI, Special MCOCA judge AM Patil remanded the accused to police custody while Sonu Kumar Chander Bishnoi (37) was sent to judicial custody on medical grounds.
The report added that the police had invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against alleged shooters Gupta and Pal, as well as Bishnoi and Thapan, who are accused of supplying rifles and bullets. Lawrence Bishnoi, a gangster, and his brother Anmol are wanted.
Earlier, the officials from the crime branch told mid-day that "all the alleged accused are a part of the same syndicate" and thence had imposed MCOCA on them.
Initially, the accused in the Salman Khan house firing incident were charged under the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act. However, following a request from the public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai, the court granted police custody to further investigate the conspiracy, the PTI report stated.
According to the report, the Salman Khan house firing incident occurred on April 14 wherein two persons on a motorcycle opened fire at the actor's Galaxy Apartment residence in Mumbai's Bandra area. Gupta and Pal, both from Bihar, were arrested in Kutch, Gujarat, on April 16, while Bishnoi and Thapan were apprehended in Punjab on April 25, the report added.
Anmol Bishnoi, residing in Canada, claimed responsibility for the shooting in a Facebook post, although the IP address was traced to Portugal. Lawrence Bishnoi, already facing multiple charges, is incarcerated in Sabarmati jail, Gujarat.
The accused were recently questioned by the Delhi Crime Branch for hours in Mumbai while a team of Mumbai Crime Branch last week recovered the firearms and live magazines used by the accused which they dumped in Surat's Tapi river. Following the recovery, the Mumbai cops invoked MCOCA against the accused persons.
