The Mumbai crime branch, investigating the April 14 firing on actor Salman Khan’s house, has recovered the second gun, along with two magazines containing 17 bullets, that the alleged shooters threw into the Tapi river in Surat in an attempt to cover their tracks. The first gun was found earlier in the river on Monday.
The recovery of both the illegal country-made pistols from the riverbed, which in some places was 20 meters deep, was made with the help of Dubai-based Envitech Marine Consultants, which had earlier helped investigators recover the alleged weapon used in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar’s murder and had offered its services in tracing MBBS student Sadichha Sane, who went missing from Bandra Bandstand in November 2021.
The crime branch’s unit 9 team, led by inspector Daya Nayak, reached Tapi river along with one of the alleged shooters, Vikas Kumar Gupta, who showed them the railway bridge from where he and his accomplice, Sagar Kumar Pal, threw the two weapons and the magazines.
Five scuba divers, equipped with floodlights and powerful magnetic equipment, scoured the river for the guns. After a search of nearly eight hours, they found one pistol and four more hours later, they were able to trace the second weapon and the 17 bullets. Police performed the videography of the recovery and made a spot panchnama.
“We used the technology of using powerful magnets underwater to detect the weapons. Our company had similarly removed a weapon in the Dabholkar case for the CBI. In this operation, in some places, the river was 20 meters deep. It was a big challenge, but our efforts yielded results,” said Vishnu Sharma, an official of Envitech.
Police said the seizure of the two pistols will help them build a watertight case against jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is alleged to have ordered the firing. They said they have already established the chain of events and the sequence of crime to show that Lawrence and his Canada-based brother Anmol Bishnoi are wanted accused in the case.
Police are now working out how many bullets were with the alleged hired henchmen. “Anmol Bishnoi had arranged for two weapons and 35 bullets, of which they fired four rounds at Salman Khan’s balcony. One bullet fell to the ground, and now, we have recovered 17,” said a source, adding that police suspect the remaining were used by Gupta and Pal while practicing firing in Bihar. The two, hailing from Bihar, were arrested from Bhuj on April 16.
