A Mumbai court on Friday extended the police custody of two men arrested from Punjab in connection with the shooting incident outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra until April 30.
Subhash Chander (37) and Anuj Thapan (32) were presented before a magistrate’s court.
Arrests
The crime branch apprehended the duo on Thursday, alleging their involvement in providing weapons and cartridges to the shooters, from Punjab.
Informing the court, the police stated that the accused played significant roles in the crime and were detained based on technical evidence.
They emphasized the necessity of interrogating the accused to ascertain the source of the weapons and who instructed them to provide them to the two shooters previously arrested.
According to police, Chander and Thapan allegedly arrived in Panvel (in Raigad district near Mumbai) on March 15 to deliver two country-made pistols and 38 live rounds to the shooters, Sagar Pal and Vicky Gupta.
On Thursday, the court extended the police custody of Pal (21) and Gupta (24) until April 29.
Lawrence Bishnoi
In addition to these four accused, the police have identified incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his younger brother Anmol Bishnoi as wanted suspects in the case.
Advocate Ajay Dubey, representing the accused, contended that Chander and Thapan had not provided weapons to the other accused or visited Panvel. He asserted they had no affiliation with the Bishnoi gang.
Dubey claimed that all charges against his clients were baseless and they were falsely implicated in the case.
Gupta and Pal allegedly fired outside the 58-year-old Khan’s residence at the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra in the early hours of April 14 before fleeing the scene on a motorbike.
They were apprehended from Mata No Madh village in Gujarat’s Kutch district on April 16.
During a search operation to recover weapons allegedly used in the shooting, the crime branch team later discovered two pistols, magazines, and bullets from the Tapi river in Gujarat.