Mumbai, Feb 16 (PTI) A special court on Monday remanded seven persons held a day earlier in the filmmaker Rohit Shetty house firing case in police custody till February 25, with investigators emphasising the crime was carried out by Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Shubham Lonkar with an intent to cause harm to the filmmaker and to instil fear and supremacy.
The accused, including the shooter Deepak Sharma, were arrested on Sunday night from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and brought to the metropolis during the day.
The special court assigned to hear cases under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) remanded them in police custody till February 25.
The police sought their custody for interrogation to unearth the conspiracy and to ascertain the whereabouts of other wanted accused in the case, including Lonkar. The police also told court it was yet to recover the firearms used in the alleged incident.
The shooting was carried out at the behest of Lonkar with the intention of causing harm to Shetty and to instil fear among other persons being targeted by the gang, police told court while seeking their custody.
Preliminary probe has revealed shooter Deepak Sharma and one more accused carried out a recce of Shetty’s residence before the incident, the prosecution claimed.
As per the police remand note, the conspiracy in the case was hatched by Lonkar, who provided finances and the 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.
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 nabbed 12 persons in connection with the case so far, he 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 Arms Act. PTI AVI SP BNM
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