One of the shooters who fired outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's Mumbai home in April has claimed to be inspired by "principles" followed by jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and on Monday sought bail in the case, saying his financial "debt" drove him to commit the alleged crime. The accused, Vickykumar Gupta, stated that Lawrence Bishnoi has been wrongly named in the case and that he had no role to play in the shooting as alleged by the Mumbai police. He said the shooting's objective was to only scare Khan (58) for his alleged act of killing two blackbucks 26 years ago.
In the police chargesheet filed last month in a court here, Lawrence Bishnoi, his brother Anmol Bishnoi and key gang member Rohit Godhara were shown as ‘wanted accused' in the case. Two motorbike borne-individuals -- Gupta and Sagar Pal -- had opened fire outside Khan's Galaxy Apartment in the upscale Bandra on April 14 morning and fled, according to the police. The duo was later arrested from Gujarat for the shooting, which the police said, was a handiwork of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
On Monday, Gupta, through his lawyers Amit Mishra, Sunil Mishra and Pankaj Ghildiyal, filed a bail application before a special court set up under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA Act). Special judge BD Shelke sought a response from the prosecution and adjourned the matter for arguments on August 13. The applicant (Gupta) was actually influenced by Lawrence Bishnoi's character from the electronic, .