Police recover 2 pistols, bullets from Tapi river

Mumbai, April 23

Mumbai police’s crime branch has recovered two pistols, magazines and bullets from the Tapi river in Gujarat during a search operation to recover weapons allegedly used in the firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s residence, an official said on Tuesday.

The crime branch has recovered two pistols, three magazines and 13 bullets during the search that began on Monday, the official said.

A team of 12 officials, including ‘encounter specialist’ senior police inspector Daya Nayak, is still at the spot. The search is underway with the help of scuba divers, he said.

The two arrested accused, Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21), allegedly fired outside 58-year-old Khan’s house at the Galaxy Apartment in the Bandra area of Mumbai on April 14 and then fled the spot on a motorbike.

They were apprehended on April 16 from the premises of a temple at Mata No Madh near Bhuj town in Gujarat by joint teams of the Mumbai and Kutch police. They were subsequently handed over to the Mumbai police.

According to sources, the duo told the police during interrogation that they threw the weapon into the Tapi river from a railway bridge when they were fleeing to Bhuj in a train after reaching Surat by road from Mumbai following the firing incident.

Prima facie, the duo’s main objective behind firing outside Khan’s residence was to create “terror”, the police had said.