The Tiger Shroff firing case just took a major new turn — and the internet has questions. On October 20, the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested four more people, including two women, for allegedly arranging and transporting the weapons used in the October 18 shooting at the Bollywood actor’s car in Mumbai. But while investigators are piecing together the weapon trail, Reddit threads and social media are buzzing with a very different set of questions: about the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, about a viral claim of responsibility, and about alleged political connections.
Here is the catch, and it matters: according to the news outlets reporting on those online discussions, the gang and political links remain unsubstantiated claims — questions the internet is asking, not answers the police have confirmed. This article separates what investigators have actually said from what the internet is theorizing.
The Tiger Shroff Firing Case: What Actually Happened
On the evening of Sunday, October 18, Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff was leaving a football ground in Juhu, Mumbai, when three men arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire at his BMW, according to multiple news reports. Preliminary accounts and footage circulating online describe two attackers approaching the vehicle and firing several shots while a third waited on the motorcycle.
Shroff escaped without being shot but suffered injuries to his left hand from gunpowder and flying glass. His driver, Firdous, sustained a bullet wound to his left hand, and an autorickshaw driver, Umesh Chavan, was struck in the chest. Both Shroff and his driver were taken to Nanavati Hospital, while Chavan was admitted to Cooper Hospital. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde later visited the actor, and said Shroff and his mother were shaken by the attack.
One eyewitness told reporters he first thought the sounds were Diwali firecrackers. Police detained one suspect the next day and formed multiple teams — reports say the Juhu police and the Mumbai Crime Branch formed 12 teams — to trace the attackers who fled.
In a surprising twist reported by NDTV on October 20, sources said interrogation of the three shooters revealed that Shroff was not the original target at all. The shooters — identified as Hrithik alias Roshan (22) from Bihar and Rehan (18) and Phool Singh (18) from Haryana — had allegedly arrived in Mumbai aiming to assassinate another high-profile individual, but shifted their target to Shroff after learning, through fan reels and Instagram, that the actor did not have police protection. “The shooters have said that their intent was to spread terror within Bollywood by killing Shroff,” a source told NDTV. The men fired seven shots; they intended to fire more, but a gun jammed.
Four More Arrested: Two Women Among the Accused
The newest development in the Tiger Shroff firing case came on Tuesday, October 20, when the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested four people for their alleged role in transporting a firearm to Mumbai ahead of the shooting. The accused were identified as Kunal (21) and Sumit (19), both residents of Sonipat in Haryana, and Radha (23) and Babita (23), residents of Sitapur and Azamgarh districts in Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
According to police, Kunal and Sumit were arrested in Sonipat, while Radha and Babita were picked up at the New Delhi Railway Station. They were produced before a court under Section 35(1)(b) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Officials of the Maharashtra Police’s Criminal Investigation Department then moved an application seeking permission for custodial interrogation and formal arrest; the court allowed it, and Mumbai Police formally arrested the four, with a three-day transit remand granted to take them to Mumbai.
Police allege the four were acting on the instructions of Anil Pandit, a 32-year-old gangster from Panipat who is allegedly operating from the United States and is associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang — a link investigators have stated as an allegation, not yet a proven fact.
The Weapons Trail: How the Pistol Allegedly Reached Mumbai
The sequence of events detailed by the Special Cell reads like a crime-thriller plot, and it is worth laying out exactly as investigators described it:
- The introduction: Kunal, who had recently been released from jail on bail, was allegedly introduced to Anil Pandit by a friend from Harsana village in Haryana. The two began communicating through an encrypted messaging application.
- The pickup: On Pandit’s instructions, Kunal allegedly travelled to Amritsar and collected a pistol and 20 rounds of ammunition. Sumit allegedly accompanied him.
- The recruit: Kunal had met Radha about two months earlier, allegedly disclosed details of his activities to her, developed a relationship with her, and persuaded her to travel to Mumbai with the firearm.
- October 15: Kunal allegedly took Radha and Babita to New Delhi Railway Station, where the two women boarded a train to Mumbai. The pistol was concealed in Radha’s bag. Kunal stayed in touch with them through the encrypted app, relaying Pandit’s instructions during the journey.
- October 17: The women reached Dadar railway station in Mumbai and checked into a hotel. At around 11 am, a minor boy allegedly collected the bag of weapons from Radha near the hotel.
- October 18, around 7 pm: Firing was reported at Tiger Shroff’s car. The women reportedly left Mumbai for Delhi on the day of the attack.
- After the attack: Pandit allegedly informed Kunal that the shooters were stranded in Mumbai and asked him to arrange their escape.
That chain — from Amritsar to a train to Dadar, via a bag handed to a minor — is what the four new accused are alleged to have built. Investigators are now interrogating them to establish the full chain of command and the motive.
The Tiger Shroff Firing Case and the Bishnoi Gang Questions Online
Now to the part of the story that has the internet talking. Hours after the shooting, a message and a viral voice note began circulating online, in which a man identifying himself as Anil Pandit — claiming to be a younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi — took responsibility for the attack on behalf of the Bishnoi gang.
The purported message read, in part: “We had called and warned him, but he did not understand. Therefore, today we made him understand in a stronger way. Anyone in the Mumbai film industry who does not listen to us or works with Salman Khan will be next. Wait and watch.” It also contained threats directed at Salman Khan, demanding an apology to Lawrence Bishnoi and the Bishnoi community. Police have not verified the authenticity of the recording, and the Statesman’s reporting notes the key reality of such cases: gangs often claim attacks they did not carry out, and investigators must now check whether the voice note is real and who actually held the guns.
On Reddit, the discussion went further — and stranger. According to India Times’ October 21 report on the online chatter, the questions about a potential political connection started when one user posted asking why the Bishnoi gang targeted Tiger Shroff and what its alleged links to the government were. The thread spiraled from there:
- One user wrote: “No one in India is as accountable as Lawrence Bishnoi. He takes accountability within an hour of the incident.”
- Another wrote: “Bishnoi is just a bogeyman. Basically the government is using goons to do its bidding and blaming it on Bishnoi. Think about it. The things this guy is able to do while being imprisoned makes no sense.”
- One more wrote: “Basically bishnoi is a gangster managed by another gangster who happens to be a politician.”
- And another added: “They had given an open threat to bollywood that anyone who works with Salmaan will be targeted so maybe that link.”
These are the Bishnoi gang questions the internet is asking. But here is the crucial framing from the reporting itself: as of October 21, the alleged government connection, the politicisation of the gang, and the role of any particular politician remain unsubstantiated claims — just like the theories about why Shroff was specifically targeted. They are questions investigators are asking, not answers anyone has.
Why does this kind of speculation catch fire so fast? Partly because the Bishnoi network has previously been linked to threats and attacks involving Salman Khan and people close to him, which gives the claims a surface plausibility. And partly because, as any regular of threads like Reddit’s wildest true-facts threads knows, the internet loves a conspiracy that connects dots — even when the dots are still being drawn by the police.
What Police Have NOT Confirmed
For balance, here is what the authorities have explicitly said they do not have:
- No prior threat calls on record. After a social media post claimed Shroff had been warned, Mumbai Police DCP Rajtilak Roushan told reporters: “We don’t have anything on record that Tiger Shroff has received prior threat calls about this incident. We have started an investigation, and in due course we will come to know about the larger conspiracy in this case.”
- The audio claim is unverified. The purported Anil Pandit voice note has not been authenticated by police, and the gang’s involvement has not been officially confirmed.
- The motive is still under investigation. Between the “not the original target” revelation and the Salman Khan link claimed in the viral message, investigators have two competing theories and have confirmed neither as final.
- The political-connection theories are pure speculation. No police statement has linked any politician to the attack.
Key Takeaways From the Case So Far
- Four people — Kunal, Sumit, Radha, and Babita — were arrested on October 20 for allegedly moving the weapons; they are now in Mumbai Police custody on a three-day transit remand.
- The alleged weapon trail runs from Amritsar to a New Delhi–Mumbai train to a Dadar hotel, coordinated through an encrypted messaging app.
- The alleged mastermind named by police is Anil Pandit, said to be operating from the US and associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang — an allegation, not a conviction.
- A viral claim of responsibility ties the attack to Shroff’s association with Salman Khan, but police have not verified it.
- Reddit’s Bishnoi gang questions — including alleged political links — are unsubstantiated speculation as of October 21, per the outlets covering them.
What Happens Next
The four accused are now with Mumbai Police, and their custodial interrogation is expected to establish the alleged chain of command, the motive, and whether others were involved. The shooters’ interrogation has already produced the startling claim that Shroff was a backup target chosen because fan posts revealed he lacked police protection — a detail that, if true, says something chilling about how social media visibility can become a vulnerability for public figures. It is a reminder that celebrity news can turn dark fast, a theme that runs through stories from viral wedding rumors to far more serious incidents like the Selma Blair flight assault case.
The Tiger Shroff firing case is still an active investigation, and the honest position — the one the reporting itself takes — is that the big questions are open. Who ordered the attack? Was the Bishnoi gang really behind it? Was Shroff targeted over Salman Khan, or was he simply the accessible option? The police will answer in due course. Until then, the internet will keep asking — and the smartest thing any of us can do is keep the questions and the facts in separate boxes.
Key sources: NDTV Profit, The Hindu, India Times, NDTV, The Daily Jagran.