Accused opened fire outside Salman Khan's home with intent to kill: Police

The accused, Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21), both residents of Bihar, were on the run after the firing incident outside Khan's house at the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra area early Sunday morning.

Mumbai: The Mumbai police's crime branch on Tuesday submitted to a local court that the two arrested accused opened fire outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's house here "in an attempt to kill him".

The accused, Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21), both residents of Bihar, were on the run after the firing incident outside Khan's house at the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra area here early Sunday morning.

They were apprehended late Monday night from Mata No Madh village in Gujarat's Kutch district and later brought to Mumbai.

As per the police, Gupta was riding the motorcycle at the time of the incident and Pal, who was riding pillion, had fired shots at the actor's house.

The duo was produced on Tuesday before a magistrate's court here.

The police sought their custody for 14 days on the ground that custodial interrogation was required to unearth the conspiracy and to identify the mastermind behind the incident.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate L S Paden remanded the two accused in police custody till April 25.

The crime branch in its remand note submitted to the court said the duo had opened fire outside Khan's residence with an intention to kill him.

"The two accused opened fire outside Salman Khan's house in an attempt to kill the actor. Custodial interrogation is required to identify the mastermind and to also ascertain the motive," the note said.

The police said a preliminary probe has established that the duo "played an active role in the alleged offence".

During preliminary questioning, the two arrested accused accepted that they had carried out the firing, the police said.

"Custody of the accused is required to probe if the accused had plans to attack anyone else other than Salman Khan," the police said in their remand note.

The note further said the police are yet to recover the firearm used in the incident and a probe is also required to be done with regard to the motorcycle used by the accused persons.

The police said that after the incident, a person claimed responsibility for it on social media platform Facebook.

As per the probe, this account was being operated from a foreign country, the police said.

"Further probe and interrogation of the arrested accused is required to be done on this," the note said.

A senior official on Monday said the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the FB post was traced to Portugal and the police were verifying it.

The accused have booked under Indian Penal Code section 307 (attempt to murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) and relevant provisions of the Arms Act, the police said.

At around 5 am on Sunday, two motorcycle-borne persons had opened fire outside 58-year-old Khan's house in Bandra area of Mumbai and fled the spot.

The motorcycle was abandoned near Mount Mary Church, a little over a kilometre from the actor's house, the police said.