Salman Khan firing case: Mumbai police recovers two pistols, bullets from Tapi river

Mumbai, Apr 23 (PTI) The Mumbai police’s crime branch has recovered two pistols, magazines and bullets from the Tapi river in Gujarat during a search operation to recover weapons allegedly used in the firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s residence, an official said on Tuesday. The crime branch has recovered two pistols, three magazines and 13 bullets during the search that began on Monday, the official said.

A team of 12 officials, including ‘encounter specialist’ senior police inspector Daya Nayak, is still at the spot. The search is underway with the help of scuba divers, he said.

The two arrested accused, Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21), allegedly fired outside 58-year-old Khan’s house at the Galaxy Apartment in the Bandra area of Mumbai on April 14 and then fled the spot on a motorbike. Based on the technical surveillance, they were apprehended on April 16 from the premises of a temple at Mata No Madh near Bhuj town in Gujarat by joint teams of the Mumbai and Kutch police.

They were subsequently handed over to the Mumbai police for further investigation. According to sources, the duo told the police during interrogation that they threw the weapon into the Tapi river from a railway bridge when they were fleeing to Bhuj in a train after reaching Surat by road from Mumbai following the firing incident.

Prima facie, the duo’s main objective behind firing outside Khan’s residence was to create “terror”, police had said.

The Mumbai police have declared jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his younger brother Anmol Bishnoi as “wanted accused” in connection with the incident.

Gupta and Pal were allegedly receiving instructions from the two Bishnoi brothers, they have said. While Lawrence Bishnoi is lodged in the Sabarmati central prison in Gujarat in another case, his brother is believed to be in Canada or the US, an official earlier said.