Were Ranveer, Aamir or Salman targets? Tiger Shroff shooters visited their homes, say cops

The three shooters who came to Mumbai to carry out the attack on actor Tiger Shroff had visited buildings where actors Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Ranveer Singh reside during their month-long stay in the city, police investigating the case have found. Police are probing whether the gang had given them the names of these actors as targets or whether they visited the locations out of curiosity.

“We have found they had visited the buildings where several celebrities resided. Actor Aamir Khan resides some distance from Tiger’s residence. So, at this point, we are not sure if they were given specific targets or if they visited these places out of curiosity. Details will emerge during their questioning. As of now, we have heightened security outside the residences of some of these actors,” a source said. All three actors have received threats in the past.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Crime Branch DCP Raj Tilak Roushan said at a press conference on Wednesday that eight people had been arrested in the case so far. Two others, Jatin and Sameer, have been detained in Haryana and will be formally arrested once the court approves the police’s transit remand application. This would take the total number of arrests to 10.

While three accused, including two shooters, were arrested in Kota, four were arrested by the Delhi Police and one, Ankit alias Rajesh Khatak (18), was apprehended in Haryana, Roushan said. The police have also detained Jatin and Sameer and sought their transit remand.

The four accused arrested in Delhi were identified as Kunal Sanjay (21), Sumit Suraha (19), Radha Verma (29) and Babita Rao (24). Kunal, Sumit and Jatin were allegedly involved in collecting a firearm from Amritsar through a method known as a “dead drop”, in which one gang leaves a weapon at a location for another to collect, preventing the arrest of one group from exposing the other.

Mumbai Police with accused in Tiger Shroff attack case. (Source: ANI)

After collecting the weapon in Amritsar, the trio travelled to Delhi, where Kunal allegedly handed it over to Radha and Babita. The two women stayed in the city last week and later handed the firearm to the shooters without revealing their identities before returning to Delhi. “The five were linked to the weapon delivery and have been picked up,” the officer said.

Police also found that Ankit alias Rajesh Khatak had accompanied the shooters in Mumbai, helped them conduct reconnaissance of locations and facilitated the transfer of money from Anil Pandit to the shooters. Police suspect that nearly Rs 2 lakh was sent to the shooters. “Ankit, however, returned to Haryana once the recce was done,” an officer said.

Story continues below this ad

Explaining Sameer’s role, an officer said he acted as the link between one of the shooters, Rehan Ansari, and Anil Pandit. Rehan was allegedly brought into the firing plot through Sameer.

The accused arrested in Kota were produced before a Mumbai court, while those arrested in Delhi are scheduled to be produced before a local court on Thursday, the officer said.