Mumbai: The money that put two men on a motorcycle outside actor Tiger Shroff's car on October 18 came through a bank account in Mumbai that was fed from a cryptocurrency wallet routed through Cambodia and a VPN set in Denmark, Mumbai Police have told a court.
Special Public Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves told Special Judge S R Navander that the wallet is suspected to hold proceeds of extortion, and that funds moved from it into a local State Bank of India account, which the accused then used through a linked QR code and UPI ID to pay for logistics. Between August 2022 and October 2026, more than Rs 47.26 lakh passed through that account, the court was told.
The specific transaction police have built on is Rs 30,000, allegedly given to an accused, Hrithik Kumar alias Roshan, to buy a motorcycle and pay for a lodge where some of the accused stayed.
Suneha Pandit, arrested in Karnal, Haryana, on Sunday and brought to Mumbai on transit remand, was sent to police custody till November 16 on Tuesday. She is the sister-in-law of Anil Pandit, described by police as a main accused and the leader of an organised crime syndicate, and her arrest is the 13th in the case.
Police allege her phone number was linked to an SBI account in the name of Abhishek, Anil Pandit's brother, who is suspected of running the crypto wallet. The court said that on the police record, her arrest was prima facie linked to the money trail and that custodial interrogation was needed to examine the finances, her role, and the whereabouts of the two men still absconding.
Her lawyer, Ajinkya Mirgal, argued that it was a family account and that money in it cannot be tied to the crime. He said she was arrested to extract a confession, and that police had earlier said the account was operated by people based overseas.
The other 12 accused are in police custody till November 6. On October 18, two men opened fire at Shroff's car. The actor was injured by broken glass, and his driver and a vlogger filming him were hit by bullets.
Nothing in the police case has been proved. The investigation is at the stage of custody and financial tracing, and the two men police say are the organisers are still at large.