Mumbai: The city crime branch police have arrested one more person from
Haryana in the Tiger Shroff firing case. The accused,
Aman, a resident of Rohna village in Haryana, was apprehended by a team of the crime branch unit in Kharkhoda after it received information about money being credited to his bank account. Aman is the 12th accused to be arrested in the case.
During the investigation, police found that Kunal Sunjay, another accused from Rohna, had deposited money into Aman’s account. Transactions of Rs 5,000 each from several other accounts were also detected. He will be produced in the special court Friday.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the special court, noting that a “deep-rooted conspiracy” required detailed custodial interrogation, remanded the other 11 accused to police custody till Nov 6, accepting the Crime Branch’s submission that the alleged organized crime syndicate’s financial network, digital trail and weapons supply chain had to be probed. This was the first remand hearing of the accused after the invocation of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Seeking 10 days’ custody, the prosecution submitted the accused were “digitally equipped” and had used hidden foreign applications like Signal and Zangi, as well as Aadhaar cards, to conceal their identity and hide communications relating to the alleged organized crime activity. Consequently, the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 were also invoked.
Special judge Satyanarayan R Navandar pronounced the order after the city Crime Branch produced the accused, including two women, before the court for remand. Appearing for the prosecution, special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves told the court that MCOCA had been invoked after the role of alleged gang leader and absconding accused Anil Pandit emerged. Gonsalves submitted that Pandit had formed an organized crime syndicate to regain or establish supremacy in Mumbai and had recruited multiple accused from across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The prosecution said the case involved two coordinated modules. Fulsingh Kumar, Rehan Ansari, Ritik Mahato, Ankit Khatak and Sameer Khatri allegedly conducted recce and participated in the actual firing, while Radha Verma, Babita Rao, Kunal Jaminsingh, Sumit Saroliya, Jatin Panchal and Pranjal Thakran allegedly formed the weapons-delivery team.
“The possible involvement of more accused and the larger ramifications of the alleged conspiracy also require investigation. These aspects are material to ascertain the respective roles of the accused and their alleged connections with the absconding accused and other members of the syndicate... the requirement of further custodial interrogation cannot be said to be unjustified merely because certain articles have already been seized and digital material has been retrieved,” the judge noted.
