The three assailants who shot at actor Tiger Shroff outside a football ground at Juhu were arrested from aboard a Jaipur-bound express train at Kota junction by a team of Rajasthan police on Monday afternoon.
“ Tiger was lucky to escape unscathed from this attack. One bullet got lodged in the bonnet and the other did not pierce the windshield. Bullet casings were found on the left side of the windscreen, while Shroff was seated in the front passenger seat. Shroff narrowly escaped the firing incident, sustaining minor bruises from shattered windscreen glass. Tiger Shroff and his team, and we are relieved that he is safe. We wish him a swift recovery. We are aware of media reports mentioning an individual registered as a captain on the Rapido platform. He has not been active as a captain on our platform since 14th October. As is common in India’s larger gig economy, individuals may be registered with several platforms at the same time. On the day of the incident, the individual had used Rapido’s services as a customer”. The company, he added, was cooperating with the investigators.
In Mumbai, the police seized the Bajaj Pulsar bike used by the trio to carry out the attack and also recovered 5 bullet cases and two live cartridges from the crime scene. A sophisticated Turkey-made Zigana handgun and a country-made pistol was used to shoot at Shroff, 36, said an investigator speaking to HT off-the-record. Weekend vlogger Umesh Chauhan, 35, who was injured is in the ICU at KEM Hospital with a bullet lodged in his chest. One bullet struck his driver-caretaker, Firdaus Ibrahim Baloch, 48, on his left hand, while two bullets entered the car. The arrested trio have been identified by the police as 18-year-olds Phool Singh and Rehan Ansari from Sonipat in Haryana, and 22-year-old Hrithik Kumar aka Roshan Ramu Mahto from Bihar who worked in Mumbai with Rapido. Addressing a press conference, the Kota police claimed that they had received information about the assailants from Mumbai police at 9.30am on Monday after which they reached the railway station and arrested the trio. On being questioned, they told the police that they were promised ₹ 37,000 for the hit and were also told that they would be sent abroad and their future would be secured.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the media in Nagpur that the “Cowards behind the attack would not be spared. His deputy Eknath Shinde said the government will not shy away from using a “bullet for bullet police” should the need arise. A spokesperson for the company told HT: “We are deeply concerned by the incident involving Mr. According to the police the three men had carried out a reconnaissance earlier in the week of the football ground where Shroff came to play football every Sunday.
The panchnama conducted on Monday by the Anti Extortion Cell and Juhu police revealed that the bullets did not hit the front windshield of Shroff’s BMW directly, which was parked behind the Santacruz police station. On Monday, a magistrate court in Kota gave a three-day transit remand to the Mumbai crime branch which is investigating the case.
