StatesDelhi
US-based gangster Anil Pandit emerges as key suspect in Tiger Shroff firing; Delhi Police trace Haryana links
The Panipat-born gangster has been linked to more than a dozen extortion and targeted-attack cases in Delhi and Haryana, and about 10 teams are now working on the case, police sources said on Monday night.
Key points
- Police sources named Anil Pandit, 32, of Panipat as a key suspect in Sunday's firing on Tiger Shroff's car.
- He is linked to more than a dozen extortion and attack cases in Delhi and Haryana and is believed to operate from the US.
- About 10 police teams are examining the shooters' network, weapons and funding.
A gangster who is believed to run his operation from the United States has emerged as a key suspect in Sunday’s firing on actor Tiger Shroff’s car in Mumbai, and Delhi Police are now tracing his links to a string of extortion and shooting cases across Delhi and Haryana, police sources said on Monday night.
The man is Anil Pandit, 32, from Haryana’s Panipat district. According to the sources, he has been linked to more than a dozen extortion and targeted-attack cases in Haryana and Delhi, and is suspected of coordinating with shooters in India from abroad. His name had surfaced earlier in the firing at a gym associated with Punjabi singer Guru Randhawa in Delhi’s Paschim Vihar.
A post and an audio clip
Investigators are examining a social media post in which Pandit allegedly claimed responsibility for the attack on Shroff and issued a threat aimed at the film industry. A purported audio clip, widely circulated since Sunday, has a man said to be Pandit claiming that Shroff was targeted for ignoring warnings not to work with Salman Khan. The voice demands that Khan apologise to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and the Bishnoi community over the 1998 blackbuck killing, and warns that “if there was no apology, others in the film fraternity close to the star would also be targeted”. The authenticity of the clip has not been established.
Ten teams on the case
About 10 teams are working on different aspects of the investigation, the sources said. The Delhi Police Special Cell is gathering details of shooters active in the National Capital Region and checking their links to the gang, and suspected associates held in Tihar and Mandoli jails may be questioned. Police are also trying to establish where the weapons came from, who paid the shooters and whether further attacks were planned in Delhi. The network is believed to communicate through messaging apps.
The inquiry now spans four states. Gunmen opened fire on Shroff’s car near Pushpa Park in Juhu at about 7 pm on Sunday, injuring his driver and an autorickshaw driver; the actor suffered minor injuries. Less than a day later, three suspects, two from Haryana and one from Bihar, were taken off a train at Kota railway station in a joint operation by Mumbai, Rajasthan and railway police.
The attack has rattled Mumbai’s film world and its politicians alike. NCP leader Zeeshan Siddique, whose father Baba Siddique was shot dead in Mumbai in 2024 in a case linked to the Bishnoi gang, raised concerns about public safety on Monday.
Mumbai Police are expected to question the three men held in Kota once they are brought to the city.