Mumbai: A special court here on Tuesday remanded the 13th accused, a woman, to police custody till November 16 in connection with the firing incident involving actor Tiger Shroff. The move follows police statement that her bank account was used to fund the co-accused in the case.
The woman in question, 22-year-old Suneha Pandit, is the sister-in-law of wanted gang leader Anil Pandit.
The Crime Branch informed the court that funds were transferred into a bank account linked to Suneha Pandit's mobile phone number from an overseas cryptocurrency wallet operated by her husband, Abhishek, to distribute money among the co-accused in the case.
Suneha was arrested in Haryana on November 1, brought to Mumbai on transit remand, and produced before special MCOCA judge S Navandar.
She is the 13th accused arrested in connection with the October 18 firing at Shroff's car in Mumbai's Juhu area when he was leaving a football ground. While the 36-year-old 'Baaghi' actor escaped largely unhurt, his car driver and a bystander, a vlogger, were injured in the shooting.
Police informed the court that Suneha's husband, Abhishek Pandit, operates a cryptocurrency wallet from overseas and that money collected through extortion was being routed to it.
This money was then transferred to a local bank account linked to Suneha's mobile number and subsequently distributed to the arrested co-accused.
Suneha was aware of these transactions, and her custodial interrogation was necessary to apprehend the wanted accused, the police argued.
Defence advocate Ajinkya Mirgal argued that the accused is innocent and had nothing to do with the crime, nor was she part of any conspiracy.
He termed the police's claims far-fetched and contended that investigators have no material evidence against the accused.
She has been arrested only to put the family under pressure and extract a confession, he added.
The court remanded the accused to police custody, observing that her custodial remand was necessary to probe her role in the conspiracy.
With her arrest, the total number of people arrested in the case has reached 13.
The Mumbai Police have invoked provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999, against all the accused in the case. According to the police, the MCOCA provisions were added to the Detection of Crime Branch, Criminal Investigation Department (DCB-CID) case, originally registered on October 19 under Sections 109(1) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Sections 3 and 25 of the Arms Act.
The competent authority granted permission to invoke MCOCA under Section 23(1)(a) of the Act on October 27. Subsequently, Sections 3(1)(ii), 3(2) and 3(4) of MCOCA were added to the case against all accused.
(With inputs from PTI & ANI)