The Mumbai Police Crime Branch, on Tuesday, nabbed the fifth accused in connection to the firing incident at the Bandra house of Bollywood actor Salman Khan. He was arrested from Rajasthan, and has been identified as Rafiq Chaudhary. Now as per recent reports, he had done a recce of the actor’s Mumbai apartment on April 12.
Rafiq Chaudhary, an alleged member of Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has been remanded into custody till May 13, and he has been accused of providing financial help to the shooters involved in the firing incident. As per the police, Rafiq made videos of the recce and sent them to Anmol Bishnoi. “The accused had met both the shooters on April 8 and April 11 in the Kurla area,” news agency ANI quoted Mumbai Police Crime Branch as saying.
For those caught unaware, two motorbike-borne assailants, on April 14, opened fire outside Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra area of Mumbai. Since then four people, including shooters Sagar Pal and Vicky Gupta, have been arrested in connection with the firing incident. Lawrence Bishnoi gang is reportedly behind the attack since the gangster's brother, Anmol Bishnoi, claimed responsibility for the shooting incident. He did so through a Facebook post, a few hours after the firing incident.
In the case investigation so far, one of the arrested accused, Anuj Thapan, allegedly died by suicide in Mumbai Police custody. He was accused of supplying firearms for the incident and was arrested on April 26 from Punjab along with Sonu Bishnoi. Both of them were remanded to police custody till April 30.
On April 29, all the four accused, including Thapan, were produced by the Mumbai police before a special court, which remanded them to police custody till May 8. Thapan was later found dead in the lockup toilet of the crime branch, located in the commissionerate complex at Crawford Market on May 1.
Post that, Anuj Thapan moved the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe into his death. While the police have claimed that Thapan killed himself, his family alleged foul play that he was killed. The petition mentioned that Thapan was physically assaulted and tortured by police in custody. His family has asked the High Court to direct the police to share the CCTV footage of the police station and the lock-up where Thapan was held.
