Three Suspected Shooters in Tiger Shroff Car Firing Arrested at Kota Railway Station

Three suspected shooters who opened fire at Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff's car in Mumbai have been arrested in Kota, Rajasthan, Indian media reported on Monday — less than a day after the attack in the city's Juhu neighbourhood set off a multi-state manhunt. The suspects were detained at Kota railway station on Monday morning while travelling on a train from Mumbai to Delhi, in a joint operation involving Mumbai Police, Rajasthan Police and the railway police, The Business Standard reported, citing Indian media.

Kota Superintendent of Police Tejaswini Gautam confirmed the arrests to the Hindustan Times, saying two of the suspects are from Haryana and one is from Bihar, that their identities have been established, and that they were being questioned. A police source identified two of the suspects as Rehan, 18, from Sonipat in Haryana, and Hritik Kumar, 22, originally from Begusarai in Bihar; the third suspect is a minor from Haryana. According to police sources cited in the reporting, the three allegedly received ₹50,000 collectively for carrying out the attack — a figure investigators are still working to verify, along with each suspect's individual role and whether all three were directly involved in the shooting itself.

Other reporting described the detention as a joint operation by the Rajasthan Anti-Gangster Task Force and Kota City Police, and said the Mumbai Crime Branch — which fielded as many as 15 police teams in the search, according to The Indian Express reporting cited by Sacnilk — would take over questioning. The suspects are expected to be handed over to Mumbai Police.

What happened in Juhu

The attack took place at about 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 18, as Shroff was leaving a football ground in Juhu, where he regularly plays on Sundays. According to the complaint filed with Juhu Police, as the actor's car exited the grounds and turned, assailants approached and opened fire at the vehicle from the front and its left side before fleeing. Shroff escaped without a gunshot wound. His caretaker and driver, Firdos Ibrahim Baloch, sustained injuries, and another man in the area was also hit.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited Shroff's residence on Sunday night. Shinde said the actor had suffered minor injuries from shattered glass and gunpowder, that he did not require surgery, and that Shroff and his mother, Ayesha Shroff, were shaken by the incident. “Strict action will be taken, and threats against public figures will not be tolerated,” Shinde said, assuring the family of the state government's support. Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti has also been instructed to conduct a comprehensive review of the security arrangements provided to actors and other members of the film industry.

Investigators say the attack was planned rather than opportunistic. Mumbai Crime Branch sources described the assailants as shooters who had conducted a detailed reconnaissance of the actor's movements, monitoring his weekly routine to time the attack for the moment he left the venue. After the firing, police recovered the motorcycle believed to have been used in the attack near Andheri railway station, and CCTV footage helped reconstruct the suspects' movements and escape routes — work that ultimately pointed investigators toward the train to Kota.

The gang claim, and what is not yet known

Within hours of the shooting, a viral social-media post — attributed to two men naming themselves on behalf of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang — claimed responsibility for the firing. Police have not verified that claim. Livemint's summary of the case states the position plainly: a post claimed the gang was responsible, but police had not confirmed it. That distinction matters, because the Bishnoi name has been attached, in recent years, to a series of threats and attacks targeting Indian film figures, and investigators will want evidence — phone records, payments, handlers — rather than a post anyone could write.

Juhu Police registered a case against three then-unidentified persons under Sections 109(1) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions of the Arms Act, and a forensic team inspected the scene and the vehicle and collected ballistic evidence. The questions now in front of investigators are the ones the arrests alone cannot answer: who paid for the attack, whether the ₹50,000 figure reflects the whole arrangement or one leg of it, whether the three men in custody acted alone in planning it, and whether the gang claim is a genuine signature or an attempt to borrow one.

For Bollywood, the immediate consequence is a security reckoning the state government has now formally ordered. A star was shot at in a busy upmarket neighbourhood, in the early evening, on a routine he kept every week — and the suspects were caught not in Mumbai but on a train hundreds of kilometres away the following morning. The speed of the arrests will be the headline the industry wants. Whether the review Commissioner Bharti has been told to conduct changes anything for the next target is the story that follows.

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