MUMBAI: Police on Saturday recreated the sequence of events concerning the February 1 firing at film producer-director Rohit Shetty’s Juhu residence, and the scooter trail at the centre of the incident.
“We took the accused to Pune and returned with them to understand how long it had taken them to bring the scooter to Mumbai, and the route they took before parking the two-wheeler outside Vile Parle railway station in Mumbai. The keys to the scooter were left in the vehicle. The shooter, who we suspect was in touch with Shubham Lonkar, the mastermind who orchestrated the operation, was then told where the scooter was parked,” said a police officer. The shooter, who is still at large, is believed to have had a couple of accomplices waiting for him near the scene of the crime.
Lonkar, a lynchpin in the Lawrence Bishnoi gang believed to be in China, was also in touch with the Pune-based arrested accused, police said. Five people from Pune – Swapnil Sakat, 23, Samarth Pomaji, 19, Siddhant Yenpure, 19, Aaditya Gayake, 19, and Asaram Shrirang Fasale, 42 – have been arrested and charged under stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). They are currently in police custody in Mumbai.
Pomaji and Sakat rode the scooter to Mumbai and parked it outside Vile Parle railway station. After they left for Pune, the shooter picked up the scooter, hopped on, and carried out a recce of the ten-storey Shetty Tower before firing at the building early in the morning on February 1, said a police officer.
Police said Lonkar had paid around ₹51,000 to the Pune accused, who had bought the two-wheeler for ₹30,000 from a certain Aman Marote. The scooter was purchased in the name of Aaditya Gayake, although the vehicle was not formally transferred to his name. Only Marote’s signature was taken on a sheet of paper, stating that the vehicle had been transferred to Gayake, police said.
“After the shooting, the accused used the scooter to flee the locality. They rode the scooter for a kilometre, dumped it outside Vile Parle railway station, and disappeared. Crime branch officers seized the scooter and are using its registration details to track down its owners. That’s how they eventually got to the arrested accused,” said the police officer.
He said recreating the sequence of events helps strengthen the case as it points police to potential witnesses, and pinpoint CCTV cameras that may have captured footage of the accused, among other things. “All this helps build evidence,” said the officer.
Shetty is not the only Bollywood personality threatened by gangsters recently. On Friday, both Shetty and actor Ranveer Singh received a threatening message sent via a three-minute audio clip allegedly by boxer-turned-gangster Hari Chand Jaat alias Harry Boxer. In the clip, Jaat is heard threatening Singh and Shetty of “dire consequences” to their teams if the duo failed to “fall in line” and meet his demands. The threats were issued by Boxer on behalf of the Bishnoi gang, crime branch officers said.