Mumbai, February 16 – In a major breakthrough, the Mumbai Police have arrested the suspected shooter who fired at filmmaker Rohit Shetty's house and six others from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in a multi-state operation, officials said on Monday.
Investigators emphasized that the crime was carried out by a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, Shubham Lonkar, with the intent to harm the filmmaker and to instill fear and dominance.
The city police's anti-extortion cell, with the help of special task forces 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 incident, on Sunday in a multi-state operation, an official said.
A Mumbai court remanded the accused persons to 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 have not yet recovered the firearms used in the firing.
According to the official, Sharma had stopped using his mobile phone to avoid being tracked by the police. His three associates, who had fled with him, were using mobile phones only for urgent communication.
"There was no communication between the shooter and the other accused. They were tracked through human intelligence and technical support," the official said.
He said more than a dozen teams of the Mumbai crime branch were working on the case and had been deployed to apprehend the accused persons.
Teams led by Joint Commissioner (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam and Additional Commissioner Shailesh Balkawade were monitoring the operation, he said.
With the latest arrests, the Mumbai police have apprehended 12 persons in connection with the case, while the main accused, Shubham Lonkar, remains at large, a senior police officer said.
The accused were working on the directions of Lonkar, who had claimed responsibility for the firing in a social media post, he said.
According to police, the accused had reconnoitered the "Singham" director's house on three occasions. Some of them had consumed alcohol in a nearby area before Sharma headed out to execute the plan.
At least five rounds were fired at the first floor of 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 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 knew each other but didn't have a direct connection with those arrested earlier from Pune.
The official said Lonkar managed both teams.
As per investigations so far, Sharma and three others fled in an autorickshaw to Kalyan from Juhu on the day of the incident, the official said.
They assembled at another accused's house in Kalyan in Thane district 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.
Lonkar's brother Pravin, who is behind bars in another firing case, will be taken into custody soon with prima facie evidence suggesting his role in the conspiracy, supplying weapons, monetary transactions and brainwashing the accused persons in the Shetty firing case.
As per the police remand note, the conspiracy in the case was hatched by Lonkar, who provided the finance and arms used in the shooting.
It added that the accused were in touch through a social media platform, which was deleted from their mobiles after the incident.
Lonkar and his gang members have committed similar crimes in the past, and there was a possibility that they are conspiring to commit more such crimes and, hence, custodial interrogation was required, the police note stated.
With the latest arrests, the police have apprehended 12 persons in connection with the case so far, the official said.
Lonkar, who had claimed responsibility for the incident in a social media post, is also wanted in the NCP leader Baba Siddique murder case 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 Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Arms Act.
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.
