Tiger Shroff had finished his Sunday football game. Outside the ground in Juhu, fans gathered as the actor got into his car. Then came the gunfire.
People scattered. Shroff escaped unhurt, but his driver and an autorickshaw driver were injured. Video of the shooting spread across phones before police had established who was behind it.
Soon, a claim of responsibility supplied a name, a grievance and another target.
Also Read | Layoffs Are Rising In Tech, But These Skills Are Helping People Unlock Better Pay
In an audio clip attributed to US-based gangster Anil Pandit, the speaker claimed that he and Harman Sandhu had arranged the attack. He said Shroff had ignored an earlier warning, threatened others in Bollywood who worked with Salman Khan and demanded that Khan apologise to Lawrence Bishnoi and the Bishnoi community.
The claim remains unverified. Police have not established that the motive stated in the recording explains the shooting.
But the names were familiar. Another attack in Mumbai. Another threat to Khan. Another invocation of a gangster who has spent years in prison.
The Name Behind The Threats
Lawrence Bishnoi's rise began in the violent rivalries surrounding student politics in Chandigarh. Arrests brought him into contact with other criminals. Investigators say those prison connections helped him build alliances across states.
His incarceration has continued alongside the expansion of the network associated with his name.
Police investigations have linked its members to extortion, weapons trafficking, shootings and murder. Overseas associates have been accused of arranging attacks in India, using local recruits and intermediaries to keep the organisers several steps removed from the gunmen.
Alongside those cases, a public image has grown through photographs, fan accounts, threatening recordings and claims issued after attacks.
That reputation has value in an extortion call. A caller invoking Bishnoi's name can point to violence the recipient has already seen on television.
It also creates a problem for investigators. A threat made in his name does not, by itself, establish his involvement. Police must determine whether the sender belongs to his network, acts for a particular associate or is borrowing the name to frighten someone into paying.
The recording after the Juhu shooting presents precisely that question.
(Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde Meets Actor Tiger Shroff After Firing Incident)
A Handler Abroad, A Shooter At Home
Accounts from police investigations describe a chain in which the people choosing a target may never meet the men sent to attack it.
A handler overseas communicates instructions. Local associates arrange money, weapons, accommodation and reconnaissance. Recruits carry out the firing and are told where to go afterwards.
The separation offers protection to those higher up. A gunman may be able to identify the person who handed him a pistol without knowing who paid for it.
The investigation into the April 2024 firing outside Salman Khan's Galaxy Apartments residence in Bandra exposed several parts of that chain.
Police identified Vicky Gupta and Sagar Pal as the shooters. Other accused were linked to supplying weapons, transferring money and filming the building before the attack. Investigators recovered pistols from Gujarat's Tapi river.
A social media post issued in Anmol Bishnoi's name claimed responsibility and called the firing the “first and last warning”.
The attack and the announcement served different purposes. The gunmen targeted one address. The post carried the threat far beyond Bandra.
The Blackbuck Case And The Demand For An Apology
The threats to Khan reach back to the 1998 blackbuck poaching case in Rajasthan, during the filming of Hum Saath Saath Hain.
The Bishnoi community reveres the animal and has a long tradition of protecting wildlife. Khan was convicted in 2018, sentenced to five years in prison and granted bail while challenging the verdict.
Lawrence Bishnoi has repeatedly invoked the case in threats against the actor.
The community's beliefs are distinct from the criminal acts committed in its name. The demand that Khan apologise, however, has become a recurring feature of the gang's public messages.
It surfaced again in the recording after the firing on Shroff's car.
This time, the threat explicitly included people who worked with Khan. Pandit claimed Shroff had already been warned and threatened others in the industry with death.
Police have yet to establish whether any such warning was delivered to Shroff before Sunday's attack.
The Murder In Bandra
Six months after the firing outside Khan's home, former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique was shot dead outside his son Zeeshan's office in Bandra.
The October 12, 2024, killing brought the investigation into the Bishnoi network to the centre of Mumbai's political and film circles. Siddique was close to Khan and knew many of Bollywood's biggest names. He also had police protection.
A gang-linked social media account claimed responsibility.
Investigators pursued an alleged chain of shooters, coordinators, payments and hideouts. Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar was identified as an alleged conspirator involved in arranging support for the operation.
But Siddique's family raised questions beyond the explanation offered in the claim. His son asked police to examine possible motives involving property interests and slum redevelopment disputes in Bandra.
The police case emphasised the Salman Khan connection. The family sought investigation of other possible interests behind the murder.
Those questions matter because a public claim can advertise a killing while concealing parts of its motive or organisation.
ALSO READ: Tiger Shroff Attack: From Juhu Firing To Bishnoi Gang Claim, Seven Things To Know
The Overseas Connection
In the Juhu case, the claim came from men described as operating abroad.
Pandit is a native of Haryana's Panipat. According to reports, he travelled to the United States through the irregular migration channel known as the dunki route in 2024 and subsequently began working for the Bishnoi gang.
Pandit had no criminal cases against him before leaving India. Multiple cases were registered later.
His instructions, reports claim, come from Hari Chand Jaat, alias Harry Boxer, rather than directly from Lawrence Bishnoi. Boxer has been operating from the US since 2022 and has previously been booked in extortion, robbery and attempted murder cases across Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi.
The allegation places another intermediary between the man invoking Bishnoi's name and Bishnoi himself.
Tracing that chain requires more than identifying the voice in a recording. Investigators must connect communications, payments and local preparations to the men who carried out the attack.
The Canada Chapter
The network's overseas presence has also drawn scrutiny in Canada, where authorities have investigated extortion and violence affecting diaspora communities.
In September 2025, Canada designated the Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity. The designation gave authorities additional powers to act against its financing and assets.
By then, the gang's name had entered the diplomatic confrontation between Ottawa and New Delhi.
In October 2024, Canadian police alleged that Indian government agents had used the Bishnoi group to target people in Canada. India rejected the allegations. Both countries expelled diplomats as relations deteriorated.
For Indian investigators pursuing overseas handlers, the practical difficulty remains access: obtaining records, locating suspects and securing their return through foreign authorities.
One significant arrest came in November 2025, when the National Investigation Agency took Anmol Bishnoi into custody after his deportation from the United States. The agency identified him as an accused in its investigation into the syndicate led by his brother.
A Network With Rival Camps
Arrests have been accompanied by accounts of splits among men once described as close associates.
Goldy Brar and Rohit Godara have been identified in reporting on a faction that broke with the Bishnoi camp. The divisions complicate the picture of a single organisation issuing instructions through an uncontested command.
The claim after the Juhu shooting contained a warning to other outfits using the Bishnoi name for publicity.
That passage was addressed to rivals as much as to Bollywood. It asserted the speaker's authority to use the name and threatened others who did the same.
Whether the recording came from those who organised Sunday's firing is now part of the police inquiry.
ALSO READ: 'First And Last Warning': Who Is Anil Pandit, Who Claimed Firing At Tiger Shroff's Car?
The Juhu Investigation
Mumbai Police's Crime Branch and Juhu police are working to identify the gunmen and establish whether Pandit and Sandhu had a role in planning or arranging the attack.
Investigators must also determine how the assailants knew Shroff's movements, who supplied their weapons and what local assistance they received.
The firing follows earlier attacks outside Khan's Bandra residence in April 2024 and filmmaker Rohit Shetty's Juhu home in February this year. Claims invoking the Bishnoi gang surfaced after both incidents.
In the latest recording, Pandit presents Shroff's association with Khan as the reason for the attack. Police have not confirmed that account.
Shroff survived Sunday's shooting. Two other men were injured. The men claiming responsibility have made their threat public; investigators must now establish whether the evidence leads back to them.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
