Accused fired outside Salman Khan’s home, tried to kill him: police appear

The two were produced before the Mumbai magistrate’s court on Tuesday.

Mumbai:

The two arrested accused opened fire outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s home “in an attempt to kill him”, the Mumbai Police crime branch said in a submission to a local court on Tuesday.

The accused Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21) are both residents of Bihar. They were on the run following a shooting incident outside Khan’s house at Galaxy Apartments in Bandra area in the early hours of Sunday.

They were arrested from Matanomad village in Gujarat’s Kutch district late on Monday night and were later taken to Mumbai.

According to police, Gupta was riding a motorcycle when the incident occurred, and Pal, who was sitting in the back seat, opened fire at Gupta’s home.

The duo faced the District Court on Tuesday.

The police sought to detain them for 14 days, citing the need for custodial interrogation to uncover the conspiracy and identify the masterminds behind the incident.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate LS Paden remanded both the accused in custody till April 25.

The crime branch said in a remand notice submitted to the court that the two opened fire outside Khan’s residence with the intention of killing him.

The note read: “Two accused opened fire outside Salman Khan’s house in an attempt to kill the actor. A custodial interrogation is required to identify the mastermind and ascertain the motive.”

Police said a preliminary investigation had determined the pair “played an active role in the alleged offences”.

Police said that during preliminary interrogation, the two arrested defendants admitted that they fired the gun.

“The accused is required to be detained to investigate whether the accused planned to attack anyone other than Salman Khan,” police said in the remand note.

The note also stated that the police had not yet recovered the firearm used in the incident and that the motorcycle used by the accused still needed to be investigated.

Police said following the incident, someone claimed responsibility on the social media platform Facebook.

According to the investigation, the account was operated from a foreign country, police said.

“This requires further investigation and interrogation of the arrested accused,” the note said.

On Monday, a senior official said that the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the FB post had been traced to Portugal and police were verifying the address.

Police said the accused has been booked under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (act committed by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. Clause charges.

Around 5 am on Sunday, two motorcycle riders opened fire outside the home of 58-year-old Khan in Mumbai’s Bandra area before fleeing the scene.

The motorcycle was abandoned near Mount Mary Church, a little more than a kilometer from the actor’s home, police said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)