ANUJ THAPAN, ARRESTED IN FIRING AT SALMAN KHAN HOUSE CASE, DIES BY SUICIDE: COPS

MUMBAI: Anuj Thapan, 23, one of the four men arrested in connection with the firing incident outside actor Salman Khan’s Bandra house, on Wednesday died by suicide at the crime branch lock-up at Mumbai police headquarters near Crawford Market, police said.

Anuj Thapan alias Anujkumar Omprakash Thapan, who arrested from Punjab on April 26, was lodged in a common lock-up along with 11 others arrested in crimes being probed by the crime branch and the economic offences wing at police headquarters.

A police officer said Thapan went to the washroom at about 12:30pm. When he did not return for some time, some inmates went to check on him and found him hanging from the window grill of the toilet. Thapan was rushed to the nearby Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital, where he was declared dead. The body will be sent to JJ Hospital for post-mortem examination, and the State CID will investigate the death.

A man, who was also in the lock-up, said Thapan had been anxious since Tuesday night about getting “stuck in the case” and worried that he wouldn’t be able to get out of jail due to the stringent sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) invoked by the Mumbai police.

The crime branch invoked the MCOCA against the suspects, alleged to be members of the organised crime syndicate led by incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol Bishnoi.

Anuj Thapan and his accomplice Sonu Subhash Chander alias Sonukumar Bishnoi are alleged to have supplied the firearms and ammunition used in the firing incident outside Salman Khan’s Galaxy Apartments at about 5am on April 14. No one was injured in the attack.

In a social media post, Anmol Bishnoi had claimed responsibility for the incident. Police have issued a lookout notice against him. Lawrence Bishnoi is currently lodged in a jail in Gujarat’s Sabarmati.

Two days later, the crime branch made the first arrests - the two alleged shooters, Vicky Kumar Gupta, 25, and Sagar Kumar Pal. 24. from Kutch in Gujarat. Thapan and his accomplice were arrested by the police from Punjab on April 26.

Police claimed that Thapan, who worked as a truck cleaner, was working for gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang and delivered the weapons on the instructions of the bosses. The crime branch recovered both pistols carried by the shooters from the Tapi river, along with four magazines containing 17 live bullets out of the 38 provided to the alleged shooters.

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2024-05-01T14:23:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd