It started with four gunshots in the dead of night outside one of Bollywood’s most powerful addresses. No warning. No ransom note. Just a calculated act of violence designed to send a message — and it worked. Weeks later, the Rohit Shetty firing case has torn open a conspiracy that stretches from a Pune garage to a jail cell, and straight to the doorstep of India’s most feared criminal network.
This is not just a celebrity crime story. This is Bollywood’s reckoning with organised crime.
The Courtroom: Coercion Claims and Extended Custody
Five accused in the firing incident outside filmmaker Rohit Shetty’s Juhu residence were produced before a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Tuesday. Aditya Gaikwad, Siddharth Yenpure, Samarth Pomaji, Swapnil Sakat, and Asaram Fasale — all arrested in Pune in the immediate aftermath of the January 31 shooting — had their police custody extended to February 23.
But the hearing delivered more than a procedural update. Accused Swapnil Sakat stood before the court and alleged that Mumbai police had coerced his statement and compelled him to sign it under duress. It was a moment that cut through the noise — and one that rival outlets covered as a footnote. It isn’t. A coercion allegation against the Crime Branch, in an MCOCA matter of this scale, is a thread that could unravel the prosecution’s carefully constructed narrative if left unchallenged.
The MCOCA Escalation: Why This Case Is Bigger Than It Looks
Most news coverage has treated the MCOCA invocation on February 11 as a legal formality. It is anything but. MCOCA is Maharashtra’s most powerful anti-organised crime weapon — a statute that carries longer custody periods, tighter bail conditions, and the weight of the state declaring: this is not an ordinary crime.
When Mumbai police invoked it, they were signalling to the courts — and to the public — that they believe a structured criminal enterprise orchestrated this attack. Their evidence, as presented in court, suggests a chilling operational chain.
The weapon recovered from accused Swapnil Sakat was allegedly supplied by Praveen Lonkar — a man currently behind bars in connection with the assassination of NCP leader Baba Siddique. Defence lawyer Ajinkya Mirgal immediately seized on the contradiction:
“They said the weapon was given to Sakat by Praveen Lonkar, who has been in jail for a year and a half. When and how did he get the weapon? This possibility seems a little doubtful to us.”
It is a fair question. And one that the prosecution will need to answer clearly if this case is to hold under scrutiny.
Police further told the court that the accused communicated exclusively via Signal — the encrypted messaging platform increasingly favoured by criminal networks for its disappearing messages — and that a social media post had publicly claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after it occurred.
The Bishnoi Thread: From a Garage in Pune to Bollywood’s Front Door
Here is where the story takes its most alarming turn — and where most competitors have stopped short of connecting the dots.
Alleged weapon supplier Asaram Fasale is not a peripheral figure. According to the Mumbai Crime Branch, Fasale had been embedded within the Lawrence Bishnoi gang’s operational infrastructure for approximately four years, working under the cover of a garage mechanic — a role that allegedly gave him access to hidden weapons caches. Acting on instructions from Shubham Lonkar, Fasale retrieved firearms from a location allegedly linked to Praveen Lonkar and handed them to Sakat. At least one weapon remains unrecovered.
Lonkar, investigators say, provided ₹40,000 to fund the operation — ₹30,000 for the getaway vehicle, ₹10,000 for logistics. A crime planned not in a boardroom, but in WhatsApp groups and on Signal threads, executed by men who drove a getaway car bought on a budget equivalent to a month’s rent.
On Monday, Mumbai Crime Branch identified the alleged shooter as Deepak Chandra and conducted a sweeping multi-state operation across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan — netting six more arrests and bringing the total to twelve. The MCOCA court, in its own assessment, noted that the incident “may appear minor at first glance, but could be only the tip of the iceberg.”
That phrase deserves to sit with the reader for a moment.
The Pattern Nobody Is Saying Loudly Enough
What is happening to Bollywood is not random. It is a strategy.
The Lawrence Bishnoi gang has systematically escalated its reach into India’s entertainment industry. Salman Khan’s residence has been under round-the-clock security since gang-linked suspects were arrested in connection with a shooting outside his home in April 2024. Baba Siddique — a politician with deep Bollywood ties — was assassinated in October 2024, with Shubham Lonkar named as a key conspirator. Now Rohit Shetty, one of Hindi cinema’s most commercially dominant directors, has had shots fired outside his home by operatives allegedly working under the same network.
Three incidents. Three targets. One gang. One escalating pattern of celebrity intimidation used as a tool for fear, extortion, and criminal supremacy.
This is the sixth major MCOCA invocation linked to Bishnoi gang activity in Maharashtra since 2023 — a statistic that reflects not just the gang’s ambition, but the state’s growing alarm at its reach.
One Man Still Free
Despite twelve arrests spanning four states, the alleged mastermind — Shubham Lonkar — remains at large. The latest batch of accused has been remanded to custody until February 25. The investigation continues across jurisdictions. The guns are partially unaccounted for. And the man who allegedly planned it all is somewhere out there, watching the case unfold.
For Bollywood, the message of those four gunshots has never been louder. For Mumbai’s Crime Branch, the real work may have only just begun.
