Mumbai: The second gun used in firing incident outside actor Salman Khan’s residence on April 14, was recovered from Tapi River in Surat on Tuesday.
Mumbai Crime Branch also found three magazines with the gun during a search operation in the river with the help of local divers and fishermen on Monday, ANI reported quoting officials.
Senior police inspector Daya Nayak, often referred to as the ‘encounter specialist, was present during the extensive search.
“A team of Mumbai police has come to Surat to recover the gun used by two men for firing at Salman Khan’s residence there. Our teams are assisting the Mumbai police in recovering the weapon,” Surat Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot told PTI.
#WATCH | Firing incident outside actor Salman Khan’s residence on April 14 | Mumbai Crime Branch recovers second gun used in the crime, from Tapi River in Surat, 3 magazines were also recovered along with the gun: Mumbai Crime Branch
(Source: Mumbai Police) pic.twitter.com/ig47SaroRi
— ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2024
The two arrested men – identified as Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21) – had told the police that they threw the weapon into Tapi river from a railway bridge while fleeing to Bhuj in a train. The duo, both natives of Champaran in Bihar, had arrived in Surat from Mumbai by road, according to media reports.
According to police, the accused had two 7.62 mm pistols with them and Pal fired five rounds outside the actor’s Galaxy Apartment home in Bandra in the early hours of April 14 using one of them. They were allegedly offered Rs 4 lakh to carry out the attack to scare the Bollywood actor but not to injure him.
Gupta was taken to the spot for the search operation. The other firearm was recovered on Monday.
Police further said the weapons are a crucial link to the case. Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is lodged in the Sabarmati central prison in Gujarat in another case, is also an accused in the case along with his brother Anmol, who is believed to have fled the country.
Hours after the firing outside Salman’s house, Anmol, in a purported online post, took responsibility for the incident and issued a warning to the Bollywood actor, saying it was a “trailer”.
Notably, the actor’s office received a threatening email in March 2023, following which the Mumbai Police registered an FIR against Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar and another person under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 506-II (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).
Before that, in June 2022, an unidentified person threatened Khan via a handwritten note.
