The probe into the conspiracy behind the attack on actor Tiger Shroff reached the national capital on Tuesday, with the Delhi Police Special Cell arresting four people, including two women, who had allegedly played a vital role in arranging and transporting weapons that the three shooters used.
Police arrested Kunal, Sumit, Radha and Babita and handed them over to the Mumbai Police.
Kunal and Sumit allegedly arranged the weapons, and Radha and Babita went to Dadar in Mumbai and handed the guns to the three men.
Shroff, the son of actor Jackie Shroff, had gone to play football in Mumbai's Juhu on Sunday evening. As his BMW car bisected the fans milling at the gate of the compound to get a glimpse of the action star, two men opened fire on the vehicle from the front. They fired 6-7 rounds of bullets. One of the two attackers was just inches from the actor and was pointing directly at him. Luckily, when he squeezed the trigger, his gun jammed, leaving Shroff unharmed. The actor's driver and a bystander were injured in the attack.
Earlier this week, the shooters -- Hrithik alias Roshan (22) from Bihar and Rehan (18) and Phool Singh (18) from Haryana -- were arrested in Rajasthan's Kota as they planned to flee to Nepal. The three men reportedly have links to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which has taken responsibility for the attack on the actor because of his proximity to actor Salman Khan, whom the gang has been attempting to target over a blackbuck poaching case.
READ | Tiger Shroff Was Not Original Target, Shooters Wanted To Kill Someone Else: Sources
The Conspiracy
Radha and Babita were arrested at the New Delhi Railway Station, while Kunal and Sumit were arrested in Sonipat, Haryana.
Kunal (21) and Sumit (19) are natives of Sonipat. Radha is from UP's Sitapur and Babita from the state's Azamgarh.
Kunal had recently been released from jail on bail. He met Anil Pandit, a gangster from the gang who claimed to have ordered the hit on Shroff, through a friend from Harsana village.
He allegedly brought a pistol and 20 cartridges from Amritsar and, two months ago, met Radha. He convinced her to transport the gun to Mumbai.
On October 15, Kunal took Radha and Babita to New Delhi Railway Station for their journey to Mumbai. They remained in touch via an encrypted app, and he relayed Anil Pandit's instructions to her.
READ | "Thought I Was Having A Heart Attack": Vlogger Injured In Tiger Shroff Firing
Two days later, they got off at Mumbai's Dadar station and checked into a hotel. A minor boy took the bag with weapons from Radha. The next day, the three men attacked Tiger Shroff.
The same day, police said, Radha and Babita boarded the Haridwar Express from Dadar and left Mumbai for Delhi.
Sources told NDTV that the actor was not the original target of the shooters. Hrithik, Rehan and Phool Singh told the police during interrogation that they arrived in Mumbai aiming to assassinate another high-profile individual.
READ | Salman Khan vs Bishnois: How A 1998 Poaching Case Became A Gangster's Calling Card
"After checking out areas frequented by this individual, the shooters realised that they would not be able to get to the person. This was when they shifted their target to Tiger Shroff after learning - through reels posted by his fans - that the actor does not have police protection," said a source.
The source said the shooters have told the police that they intended to spread fear within Bollywood by killing Tiger Shroff.
The shooters had been paid Rs 50,000 as an advance and were promised more money and employment.