Mumbai: The twelfth arrest in the Tiger Shroff firing case came from a village in Haryana, and the trail that led there was financial.
The Mumbai police crime branch detained a man identified as Aman from Rohna village in Kharkhoda tehsil of Sonipat district on Thursday, acting with the Haryana police. Officers said he was close to Kunal Jaminsingh, one of the accused alleged to have supplied the Turkish-made Zigana pistol used in the firing.
According to police, Aman received funds in his personal bank account from Anil Pandit, an alleged operative of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang who claimed responsibility for the attack in social media posts. "Aman received some money from Pandit in his personal bank account, which he withdrew and gave to Kunal," an officer said. Investigators suspect the money was used to buy the weapon later handed to the two alleged shooters, Rehan Ansari and Phool Singh. Transactions of ₹5,000 each from several other accounts were also traced.
Aman will be produced before a court in Haryana on Friday for a transit remand so that he can be brought to Mumbai and placed under arrest.
The case dates to October 18, when two men allegedly fired several rounds at Shroff's car in Juhu and fled with a getaway rider. The actor was largely unhurt; his driver and a bystander sustained bullet injuries. The two alleged shooters and the rider were arrested on October 19 from a Jaipur-bound train at Kota station.
On Thursday, a special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act remanded the 11 accused already arrested to police custody till November 6. Special judge Satyanarayan R Navandar said a deep-rooted conspiracy required custodial interrogation, and that the requirement could not be called unjustified merely because articles had been seized and digital material retrieved.
The prosecution told the court the accused had used hidden foreign applications such as Signal and Zangi and Aadhaar cards to conceal identity, and that provisions of the Aadhaar Act had also been invoked. It described two modules: one for reconnaissance and the actual firing, another for delivering weapons, with recruits drawn from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Pandit remains absconding.