Mumbai, February 16 In a major breakthrough, the Mumbai police have arrested seven people, including the alleged shooter who fired five rounds at filmmaker Rohit Shetty's house, from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Monday.
The city police's anti-extortion cell, with the help of the special task forces (STF) from the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana police, apprehended the alleged shooter, Deepak Rameshchandra Sharma, a resident of Agra, and six others involved in the February 1 firing, on Sunday in a multi-state operation, an official said.
The police had earlier stated that the accused were nabbed from Haryana and Rajasthan.
The accused were brought to the city and produced before a court, which has sent them to police custody till February 25, he said.
With the latest arrests, the Mumbai police have nabbed 12 persons in connection with the case, while the main accused, Shubham Lonkar, remains at large, a senior police official said.
The accused were working at the direction of Shubham Lonkar, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, who had taken responsibility for the firing in a social media post, he said.
According to police, the accused had reconnoitred the "Singham" director's house on three occasions before the firing, and some of them had consumed alcohol in a nearby area before the alleged shooter headed out to execute their plan.
At least five rounds were fired at the first floor of filmmaker Rohit Shetty's nine-storey building in the Juhu area at 12.45 am on February 1. One bullet struck the glass of a gym inside the building.
Besides the alleged shooter, the police have apprehended Sunny Thakur, Sonu, Ritik Yadav, Jatin Bharadwaj, Vishal Thakur and Vishnu Kushwah, the official said, adding that the accused were in the age group of 20 to 25 years.
Kushwah is the cousin of shooter Deepak Sharma, he said.
The accused, nabbed from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, knew each other but didn't have a direct connection with those arrested earlier from Pune.
The official said their gang leader, Shubham Lonkar, managed both teams.
As per investigations so far, Sharma and three other accused had allegedly come to Juhu on the day of the incident, and fled in an autorickshaw to Kalyan, in neighbouring Thane district, after the firing, the official said.
They held a meeting at another accused's house in Kalyan, before escaping to the northern states by train, he said, adding that the accused had hidden in a premises in Haryana, which Ritik Yadav had provided.
The official said that Kalyan served as a meeting point for the accused, as one of them had lived in the town for almost two years.
Shubham Lonkar's brother Pravin, who is behind bars in another firing case, will be taken into custody soon, as there is evidence that he was involved in the conspiracy, weapon supply, money transactions and brainwashing the accused persons.
The crime branch had earlier arrested Aditya Gayaki (19), Siddharth Yenpure (20), Samarth Pomaji (18), Swapnil Sakat (23) and Asaram Fasale, who had allegedly provided a scooter and other logistic support and weapons to the shooter, the official said.
The police have invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.
