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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Accused trio get 10-day remand

Mumbai: A Mumbai Court has given 10 days police custody to three arrested accused in the firing on Bollywood action star Tiger Shroff in a crowded public place as the investigators attempt to unravel the conspiracy, motives, involvement of other players and related aspects of the sensational case, on Wednesday. The accused trio Rehan alias Sukka, and Phool Singh both from Sonipat in Haryana and Rhitik Kurmi alias Roshan, originally from Begusarai in Bihar but currently residing in Mumbai,...

Accused trio get 10-day remand

Mumbai: A Mumbai Court has given 10 days police custody to three arrested accused in the firing on Bollywood action star Tiger Shroff in a crowded public place as the investigators attempt to unravel the conspiracy, motives, involvement of other players and related aspects of the sensational case, on Wednesday. The accused trio Rehan alias Sukka, and Phool Singh both from Sonipat in Haryana and Rhitik Kurmi alias Roshan, originally from Begusarai in Bihar but currently residing in Mumbai, were brought here from Kota in separate vehicles early today. They were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Esplanade Court where the police sought 14 days’ custody for the accused who are allegedly acting at the behest of the jailed mafia chief Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang. Pleading for the remand, the police lawyers argued that sustained custodial interrogation was necessary to recover the weapons used in the shooting – which the accused had thrown away while fleeing, retrieve two mobile phones which were reportedly destroyed by the accused, besides digging out the entire conspiracy, pinpoint the exact motives and identify other persons involved in the brazen attack. Opposing the plea, the accused’s lawyers Ajinkya Mirgal and Satyabrat Joshi argued that police custody was unnecessary, particularly for recovering the weapons. Mirgal and Joshi later told mediapersons that the accused had already been interrogated at a railway colony during their transit-remand period and were produced before the CMM Court just minutes before the transit remand expired this afternoon. After hearing both sides, the CMM remanded them to police custody for 10 days till October 31. It may be recalled that Shroff, 36, was targeted on the evening of October 18 near Pushpa Narsee Park in Juhu. Despite being a heavily crowded area, the assailants were seen firing at least 5-6 rounds at the actor’s car before fleeing on a motorcycle. A shaken Shroff escaped relatively unhurt, sustaining minor bruises, but his driver and a bystander suffered injuries. Following the incident, the Mumbai Police registered a case of attempted murder and offences under the Arms Act, and launched an interstate investigation involving Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, and later Gujarat and Delhi. The Mumbai Police formed 20 teams to hunt down the attackers, recovered the second-hand motorcycle outside Andheri station where it was abandoned and tracked their journey through different modes of transport from Mumbai to Surat and Kota. Acting on a tech-intel alert from Mumbai Police, the Kota Police lay in wait for them and apprehended them from the general coach of the Pune-Jaipur Superfast Express on Monday morning. Initial probe revealed that the assailants were planning to flee the country after travelling to the borders via Jaipur and Delhi. They were lured by the promise of sneaking them out of India to a foreign country, possibly Canada and rehabilitating them. Three key accused brought to Mumbai from Kota Three key accused apprehended in connection with the firing at actor Tiger Shroff’s car were brought to Mumbai from Kota in Rajasthan early on Wednesday, police said. Police brought them by road from Kota to Mumbai and, upon arrival, immediately took them to GT Hospital for a mandatory medical examination, an official said. Following the medical check-up, the accused were escorted to the Mumbai Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) office for interrogation. The accused have been identified as Rehan alias Sukka, from Sonipat in Haryana; Ritik Kurmi alias Roshan, originally from Begusarai in Bihar and living in Mumbai; and Phool Singh from Haryana, the official said. The Kota city police had handed them over to Mumbai Police, which formally arrested them and produced them before a magistrate there. The court granted transit remand to take them to Mumbai. Meanwhile, advocate Ajinkya Mirgal arrived at the AEC office in Mumbai on Wednesday morning, informing officials that he would represent the accused as their defence counsel in the case. At least two men fired gunshots at Shroff’s car in Mumbai’s Juhu area on Sunday evening before speeding away on a motorcycle. The actor escaped relatively unhurt, while his driver and a bystander were injured. According to Mumbai Police, five to six rounds were fired at the car. A motorcycle, allegedly used by the shooters, was found abandoned in Andheri. The accused fled to Surat and once there, boarded a Jaipur-bound train. The three were supposed to go to Delhi on a bus and then flee to Nepal. The Mumbai Police have registered a case under the provisions of attempt to murder and the Arms Act. According to the police, Rehan was in touch with Anil Pandit, an alleged associate of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which claimed responsibility for the attack in an unverified social media post. On Tuesday, the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested four more persons, including two women, in connection with the firing case. Police suspect they were acting on the directions of Anil Pandit, a gangster operating from abroad, an official earlier said. The four accused, identified as Kunal (21), Sumit (19), Radha (23), and Babita (23), were apprehended from Delhi and Haryana. According to police, Kunal allegedly collected a pistol and 20 rounds from Amritsar on the instructions of Anil Pandit, with Sumit accompanying him. Radha and Babita allegedly travelled to Mumbai with the weapon. Following the arrest, the police said the motive of the shooting was being ascertained, while the way Shroff was attacked, the assailants planned to kill him.

Marathi Matters

Correspondent
Aug 26
2 min read

A basic knowledge of the local language should not be an unreasonable demand for someone earning a living by serving the public in that state.


The perfectly reasonable proposition put forward by the state government that commercial passenger-vehicle drivers should possess a working knowledge of Marathi has been unfortunately recast by some taxi and autorickshaw drivers as an assault on fundamental rights.

 

Four Mumbai-based Uber drivers have approached the Bombay High Court, challenging the state government’s notification making working knowledge of Marathi compulsory. Their petition invokes constitutional guarantees of equality, the freedom to practise a profession and the right to life, while arguing that the Motor Vehicles Act does not prescribe a language requirement for badges or permits.

 

There is nothing inherently oppressive about expecting a worker who operates in a particular linguistic environment to learn enough of its language to perform his job. A driver does not need to become a Marathi scholar, pass an examination in medieval literature or abandon his mother tongue. He needs to understand a passenger, ask where he wants to go, give basic directions and deal with an emergency. That cannot be cultural assimilation by force. It is, in fact, basic occupational competence.

 

The principle is hardly peculiar to Maharashtra. Indians who move to another state for work routinely encounter a different language and, sensibly, make an effort to acquire at least its basics. A Bengali worker in Tamil Nadu, a Marathi worker in Karnataka or a Hindi-speaking migrant in Kerala cannot reasonably expect the surrounding society to reorganise itself entirely around his linguistic preferences. Learning the local language is one of the simplest forms of adaptation and, ideally, the beginning of acculturation.

 

The irony in Mumbai is particularly rich. Drivers protesting the requirement have reportedly been turning up at language classes, armed with handwritten Marathi phrases. What passengers actually need is rather more prosaic, basic yes or no and questions on destination from their prospective drivers.

 

The state’s decision to establish 161 training centres, provide a helpline and allow drivers who fail the test time to improve is therefore welcome. Enforcement should be transparent, proportionate and free of vigilantism. A language requirement certainly should never become an excuse for extortion or intimidation.

 

But the answer to an imperfectly administered rule is better administration, not the rejection of the principle itself. Those who choose to earn their livelihood in Maharashtra should not be encouraged to regard Marathi as an imposition simply because it is inconvenient to learn.


Mumbai has always absorbed outsiders. It has not required them to surrender their identities. It can, however, reasonably ask them to learn how to say “yes, please sit” before they learn a dozen ways of saying “I want to go home.”

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