How Mumbai Cops Tracked Down 3 Men Who Fired At Tiger Shroff Within 24 Hours

Things unravelled at a brisk pace. The shots rang out as Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff was leaving a football club in Mumbai on Sunday around 7pm. The attackers then fled on a bike and were later seen boarding a train at Surat Railway Station. They were intercepted at Rajasthan's Kota the following morning, ending the whirlwind chase for the attackers.

The operation involved coordinated intelligence-sharing between Mumbai Crime Branch and Rajasthan Police.

Investigators formed around 20 special teams immediately after the attack on the actor to identify and track down the accused.

Police traced the motorcycle, abandoned near Andheri West railway station, used in the crime and gathered information about the suspects through technical investigation and further leads.

The investigation then moved beyond Mumbai, with investigators obtaining inputs that the accused were travelling towards Rajasthan by train.

Mumbai Crime Branch shared the relevant information with Rajasthan Police, following which Kota Police detained all three accused at Kota railway station.

The three accused are men from Bihar and Haryana, according to a police press note.

Tiger Shroff, known as much for his eye-catching dance moves as for his action heroics, was waving at his fans through the rolled-up car windows, when the men opened fire. A man in front, holding up a gun supported by both hands, fired at the car, showed a video. Another man, wearing a cap, was seen firing from the side. A man on a bike was stationed right there and the three then fled on it, the video showed.

The actor, son of the '80s star Jackie Shroff, escaped unhurt but his driver and another driver of an autorickshaw were injured in the incident, police said.

The accused were intercepted in Rajasthan's Kota, while they were travelling in a general compartment on the Pune-Jaipur Superfast Express, and were headed to Delhi, police said, adding, they wanted to flee to Nepal.

The messages and locations among the accused were being shared through the Signal and Telegram apps, sources said.

The police are yet to recover the firing weapon from the accused, who were caught when the train halted at Kota at 10.17 am, police said.

The three accused received Rs 50,000 collectively as advance to carry out the attack, according to police sources. Investigators are questioning the accused to establish their individual roles and determine whether all three were directly involved in the shooting.

A Mumbai Crime Branch team has now taken custody of the accused.

The case is being investigated by the Crime Branch's Anti-Extortion Squad, with officers examining the sequence of events, the alleged motive and the role of others involved.