Mumbai police have arrested Pranjal Thakral, a 22-year-old engineering diploma holder, marking the 11th arrest in connection with the October 18 shooting attack on Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff in the city’s Juhu area. Police arrested Thakral in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on Friday in a joint operation involving the Mumbai Crime Branch and local police. Investigators allege that he acted on the direct instructions of Anil Pandit, the alleged mastermind believed to be operating from the United States as part of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
According to police, Thakral was responsible for arranging logistics and funds for the shooters and supplied one of them with a second pistol. He and Pandit reportedly communicated through encrypted messaging applications to avoid detection. Thakral, who is originally from Sonipat, Haryana, had travelled to Indore several days earlier to visit his brother, who is receiving treatment for paralysis. His presence in the city enabled investigators to locate and detain him.
This is not Thakral’s first alleged involvement in violence linked to Pandit. He had previously been jailed for an attack on a businessman in Panipat, Haryana, which police say was also carried out on Pandit’s instructions. Police released him on bail in March. Police allege that shortly after his release, he resumed contact with the network and accepted the assignment targeting Shroff.
Anil Pandit, who is in his early thirties and originally from a village in Panipat, is wanted in multiple extortion and shooting cases across Haryana, Delhi, and other states. Investigators describe him as key overseas operative of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Following the Juhu shooting, messages and audio clips attributed to Pandit claimed responsibility for attack, linking it to the gang’s longstanding feud with actor Salman Khan and warning members of the film industry against associating with him. Three alleged shooters, Phool Singh, Rehan Rahisuddin Ansari, and Rithik Mahto, were previously arrested on a train in Kota and remain in custody. Two firearms and live cartridges recovered from a hideout in Surat are being examined.
The attack took place on evening of October 18, when assailants on motorcycles opened fire on Shroff’s car. The actor escaped without life-threatening injuries. The case has drawn attention to gang’s expanding operational reach, which relies on young recruits, logistics spanning multiple states, and handlers based abroad who issue instructions through voice-over-internet-protocol services and encrypted applications.
Thakral appeared before a Mumbai court and was remanded to police custody until October 31. Investigators are questioning him to trace the full chain of communications, weapons procurement, and fund transfers linking Pandit in the United States to the local network that carried out the shooting. With 11 arrests made and weapons recovered, police say probe is focused on identifying remaining associates and preventing further attacks linked to same network. The sources said further disclosures are expected as custodial interrogation continues.