Rohit Shetty house firing: Police custody of five accused extended till Feb 23
Mumbai (PTI): A special court on Tuesday extended the police custody of five accused, arrested in connection with the firing at Bollywood filmmaker Rohit Shetty's residence here, till February 23.
Their further remand was needed for a joint interrogation with those arrested later, police told the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court.
So far, 12 persons have been arrested in the case, including the seven nabbed from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. The latter have been remanded in police custody till February 25.
Aditya Gayaki (19), Siddharth Yenpure (20), Samarth Pomaji (18) Swapnil Sakat (23) and Asaram Fasale were produced before special judge Mahesh Jadhav at the end of their previous remand.
Their custody was needed for a joint interrogation and for tracing the money trail as well as the vehicle used in the crime, the police told the court.
Defence lawyer advocate Ajinkya Mirgal opposed the plea, saying that the probe agency had had enough time to question them.
Physical custody of the accused was not required for finding out the money trail as the police had already seized their mobile phones, he added.
The court, after hearing the arguments, extended the custody of the five accused till February 23.
At least five rounds were fired at the first floor of Shetty's nine-storey building in Juhu area at 12.45 am on February 1. A bullet struck the glass of a gym inside the building.
Alleged shooter Deepak Sharma was among those arrested on Sunday. According to the police, the firing was carried out at the instructions of Shubham Lonkar, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, with the intention of causing harm to the filmmaker and instill fear. Lonkar is among the wanted accused in the case.
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Rahul Gandhi calls Great Nicobar Island project a ‘major threat’ to environment, tribal heritage
Sri Vijaypuram (Port Blair)/ Nicobar: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Centre’s development initiative in Great Nicobar Island on Wednesday, On his maiden visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gandhi alleged that the project will lad to large-scale environmental degradation and displacement of local communities.
The Rae Bareli MP, in a post on X after visiting the island, said the project would lead to extensive deforestation and adversely impact indigenous populations.
“So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime,” Gandhi added.
“The government calls what it is doing here a ‘Project’. What I have seen is not a project. It is millions of trees marked for the axe… It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away,” Gandhi said.
Describing the initiative as “destruction dressed in development’s language”, he termed it one of the “biggest scams” against the country’s natural and tribal heritage and called for it to be stopped.
Gandhi also claimed that nearly 160 square kilometres of rainforest could be affected, raising concerns over ecological damage.
