Tiger Shroff car firing: Four accused in weapon supply sent to police custody till October 26

Four people accused of helping supply the weapon used in the firing on actor Tiger Shroff's car were sent to police custody till October 26 by a magistrate's court in Mumbai on Thursday. Two of the four are women. They were produced before the Esplanade court after being brought from Delhi, where they were picked up on October 20.

The accused are Kunal Singh, 21, of Rohna village in Sonipat district, Haryana; Sumit, 19, of Kharkhoda in Sonipat; Radha Verma, 23, of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh; and Babita Rao, 23, of Azamgarh in the same state. The filings spell Sumit's surname differently, as Sorolia in one and Surliya in the other. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police's Northern Range made the arrests, and the Maharashtra Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) then formally arrested the four in this case.

The prosecution had asked for custody till October 31. It told the court that the weapon used in the attack has still not been recovered, and that the four were responsible for supplying the pistol and cartridges. Police said the accused were closely involved in the conspiracy along with those arrested earlier.

Police have laid out a sequence of events. They allege Kunal collected a pistol and 20 rounds from Amritsar at the instance of Anil Pandit, with Sumit going along. Kunal then allegedly persuaded Radha to take the weapon to Mumbai. On October 15, police say, he took Radha and Babita to New Delhi railway station, and the pistol was hidden in Radha's bag. The two women are said to have carried it to Mumbai by train and handed it to the shooters.

After the firing on October 18, Anil allegedly told Kunal to arrange for the shooters to get away, as they were reportedly stuck in Mumbai. Radha and Babita then returned to Delhi by train and were caught at New Delhi railway station on October 20. Kunal and Sumit were caught in Sonipat.

Defence lawyer Sachin Patil opposed police custody. He argued that police have so far not even established the make of the pistol, that no co-accused's statement had been recorded before the arrests, and that investigators had already had ample time for questioning. An arrest on suspicion alone, he said, is not a valid ground for custody. He asked what evidence tied the women to the case, and said call detail records and electronic evidence could be examined without further police custody. He sought judicial custody instead, and pointed out that the custody of three other accused, remanded on Wednesday, had only just begun.

Another defence lawyer, Advocate Ajinkya Mirgal, said the two women were not at the site of the firing and need not be questioned further in custody. He urged the court to send them straight to judicial custody. Another defence lawyer also argued that the women were being implicated only on police suspicion and that police had not been able to link the accused to the supply of weapons and ammunition.

After hearing both sides, the magistrate granted police custody till October 26. The accused made no complaint of ill-treatment by police, though Kunal Singh was seen with a bandage on his head.

The firing took place on the evening of October 18 in Juhu, when at least two men shot at Shroff's car and fled on a motorcycle. The actor was not seriously hurt, but his driver and a passer-by were injured. Ten people have now been arrested in the case. On Wednesday, the court sent three of them, Rehan alias Sukka, Ritik Kurmi alias Roshan and Phool Singh, to police custody till October 31.