Firing outside Salman Khan's house: Police custody of two accused extended till April 29

MUMBAI: The Esplanade Court on Thursday extended the police custody of both the accused arrested in connection with the firing outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan's residence in Mumbai till April 29.

Accused Vicky Gupta and Sagar Pal were produced before the metropolitan magistrate court here after their previous remand ended on Thursday and granted the custody to Mumbai Crime Branch.

Earlier, the Mumbai Crime Branch recovered strong evidence against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol Bishnoi, and hence both are the main conspirators and have been made the most wanted accused.

Mumbai Police registered a case against four people in the firing case at Salman Khan's house, in which Anmol Bishnoi and Lawrence Bishnoi are also accused.

According to the information received from the Mumbai Crime Branch, before the firing incident, the shooters had done a recce of Salman Khan's house four times. The shooters had also once reached Khan's farmhouse. However, Salman had not gone to his farmhouse for many weeks, and hence they planned to fire at the house.

Mumbai Crime Branch officials informed that when the accused were arrested, a broken mobile phone was recovered from them. The Crime Branch said that the accused had more than one phone and now the Crime Branch is searching for the remaining phones as well.

Before that, the Mumbai Crime Branch also informed about the recovery of the second pistol from the Tapi River in Surat. Mumbai Crime Branch revealed that they had not only recovered the second pistol but also four magazines and 17 rounds.

In this case, on April 22 the crime branch had recovered one pistol from the river. Shooter Vicky Gupta's footprints were found while going from Mumbai to Bhuj in Gujarat, the shooters had thrown the gun and magazine in the Tapi river near Surat.

The police are searching for the phones of the accused in the river as the accused had transferred money to the bank several times.

The two men, who came on a motorbike, fired four rounds outside the Galaxy Apartments, where the actor resides, around 5 am on April 14 and fled. CCTV footage showed that both the accused sported caps and carried backpacks.

Earlier, Kutch Police arrested the two accused persons and handed them to the Mumbai Crime Branch. Later, a city court sent the two accused to the custody of the Mumbai Crime Branch until April 25 in connection with the firing incident.

The sections under IPC 506(2) (threatening), 115 (abetment), and 201 (tampering with evidence) have been added to the case. Mumbai Crime Branch officials disclosed that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol Bishnoi have been declared wanted accused in connection with the case.

Anmol Bishnoi, younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, claimed responsibility for the firing outside Salman Khan's house through a Facebook post following the attack.