Mumbai:
Actor Tiger Shroff escaped without injury while his car driver suffered a gunshot wound, and another person standing nearby was shot in the chest, in an attack by three men who escaped on a motorbike in Mumbai’s Juhu on Sunday evening. Shroff was reportedly leaving a football ground when the attack took place. Five shots were fired, but a shooter’s gun jammed when he was about to fire a sixth, inches from Shroff, videos showed.
An audio clip soon emerged in which a man identifying himself as Anil Pandit, claiming to be from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, said Tiger Shroff was on their hit list as “he was not heeding our directions” and “was working with Salman Khan”. Bishnoi, who is in jail in Gujarat, has repeatedly threatened to kill Salman Khan.
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One person was later detained, though further details were awaited.
Tiger Shroff and Salman Khan have not starred together in a full-length feature film, though they share several industry connections. Salman Khan reportedly helped pave the way for Tiger Shroff’s entry into Bollywood by advising producer Sajid Nadiadwala to launch him. Tiger Shroff’s father, Jackie Shroff, has worked with Salman Khan in multiple major films. The two have shared stages and have frequently expressed mutual admiration for each other’s fitness and dedication to action films.
READ | In Tiger Shroff Assassination Attempt, Bishnoi Gang’s “Salman Khan” Mention
A voice emerged on social media soon after in which a man can be heard speaking in Hindi: “I am Anil Pandit. I am like a younger brother to Lawrence Bishnoi. What happened with Tiger Shroff today, we take responsibility for that — Harman Sandhu and myself.”
He says Tiger Shroff “was counselled, but did not understand us”.
“In the entire film industry, whoever works without aligning with us, or works with Salman Khan, will be killed. This is the first and last warning.”
He repeats a warning that unless Salman Khan apologises to Lawrence and the animal-loving Bishnoi community — apparently over his alleged involvement in a blackbuck hunting case — “then we will not spare anyone in your family, not even your pet dogs”.
In 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that Salman Khan topped the list of 10 main targets that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi planned to eliminate, citing the actor’s infamous 1998 blackbuck hunting incident, which, according to the gangster, offended the Bishnoi community.
The attack on Tiger Shroff comes two years after former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique was shot dead, on October 12, 2024, in Mumbai’s Bandra area, and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility specifically because of his close friendship with Salman Khan.
