Mumbai, February 16 A special court on Monday remanded seven people arrested a day earlier in the case of a shooting at filmmaker Rohit Shetty's house in police custody until February 25, with investigators emphasizing that the crime was carried out by Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Shubham Lonkar with the intent to harm the filmmaker and to instill fear and dominance.
The accused, including the shooter Deepak Sharma, were arrested on Sunday night from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and brought to the city during the day.
The special court, which hears cases under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), remanded them in police custody until February 25.
The police sought their custody for interrogation to uncover the conspiracy and to ascertain the whereabouts of other wanted accused in the case, including Lonkar. The police also told the court that they had not yet recovered the firearms used in the alleged incident.
The shooting was carried out at the behest of Lonkar with the intention of harming Shetty and to instill fear among other people targeted by the gang, the police told the court while seeking their custody.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the shooter, Deepak Sharma, and another accused, conducted a reconnaissance of Shetty's residence before the incident, the prosecution claimed.
According to the police remand note, the conspiracy in the case was hatched by Lonkar, who provided the finances and the weapons used in the shooting.
It added that the accused were in contact through a social media platform, which was deleted from their mobile phones after the incident.
Lonkar and his gang members have committed similar crimes in the past, and there is a possibility that they are conspiring to commit more such crimes, hence custodial interrogation was required, the police note stated.
At least five rounds were fired at the first floor of Shetty's nine-storey building in Juhu in the western part of Mumbai at 12.45 am on February 1. One bullet struck the glass of a gym inside the building.
With the latest arrests, the police have so far apprehended 12 persons in connection with the case, he said.
Lonkar, who had claimed responsibility for the incident in a social media post, is also wanted in the murder case of NCP leader Baba Siddique and the firing at Bollywood actor Salman Khan's residence in Bandra.
Apart from the provisions of MCOCA, the accused have also been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Arms Act.
