A Mumbai court has directed Maharashtra’s Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratory (DFSL) to provide recordings of an alleged conversation between a shooter involved.
In the firing at Salman Khan’s Mumbai residence and gangster Anmol Bishnoi, brother of Lawrence Bishnoi. The Mumbai Police intend to analyse the voice recording between the shooter, Vicky Kumar Gupta, and Bishnoi to investigate the latter’s potential involvement in the murder of former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique, who was shot dead in Mumbai’s Bandra area on October 12.
Anmol, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, is an accused in the shooting incident at Salman Khan’s residence. The gang is also under investigation in connection with Siddique’s murder, for which it claimed responsibility.
As per the court’s order, the voice recording preserved by the Forensic Department will be handed over to Assistant Commissioner of Police Kishorkumar Shinde, while a copy will be retained for records.
Special Judge BD Shelke, while passing the order on the application of the Mumbai crime branch observed, “the investigating agency is in need of a soft copy of the conversation between arrested accused Vickykumar Gupta (alleged shooter) and wanted accused Anmol Bishnoi”.
“Hence, this Court has no hesitation to issue directions to the DFSL to provide soft copy of said audio clip of the conversation by accused Vickykumar Gupta and wanted accused Anmol Bishnoi to the investigating agency,” the court added.
On April 14, two individuals on motorcycles, including Vicky Kumar Gupta, fired shots outside actor Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra, Mumbai. The shooters, Gupta and Sagar Pal, were later apprehended in Gujarat.
According to the chargesheet filed by the crime branch, Gupta had been in contact with wanted accused Anmol Bishnoi via the instant messaging app Signal. Gupta allegedly sent an audio clip of their conversation to his brother, who is a witness in the case, the police stated.
The police seized the brother’s phone and, after data extraction by the DFSL, retrieved the voice clip.
Citing the importance of analysing these voice samples for the murder case of Siddique, the Mumbai Crime Branch approached the DFSL. However, DFSL informed them that the phone remains sealed, with the audio clip preserved separately on a pen drive.
The voice analysis was conducted, and the report is included in the chargesheet related to the firing incident at Salman Khan’s house.
Siddique, a three-time Congress MLA who recently joined the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, was shot dead outside his Nirmal Nagar office on October 12. Police confirmed it as a contract killing and are investigating a possible link to the Bishnoi gang.