Mumbai police arrest actor Kamaal R Khan in Lokhandwala shooting case

The Mumbai police arrested actor Kamaal R Khan, popularly known as KRK, early on Saturday morning in connection with an incident where two bullets were fired at a residential building in Lokhandwala, Andheri, last Sunday.

“He has been arrested under the Arms Act, and an investigation is on to find out the reason behind the firing,” Dikshit Gedam, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 9), said, confirming the development. He was arrested on charges of attempt to culpable homicide and committing an act endangering personal safety of others in addition to sections of the Arms Act.

The incident took place at Nalanda building in Andheri (West) on January 18. Writer-director Neeraj Kumar Mishra and model Prateek Baid, who stay on the second and fourth floors of the building, respectively, told the police they had heard a sound that was like someone shooting a gun and later found a ‘bullet’ inside their house.

The Oshiwara police registered an offence and began an investigation in the matter. Initially, the case was so open-ended that the police termed the objects ‘projectiles’, pending forensic verification.

Later, the police got confirmation that the ‘projectiles’ were indeed bullets—albeit of a low calibre, indicating they were relatively less lethal. Based on where the bullets were found, the police began looking at possible locations from where the bullets would have had to be fired for them to land inside the two flats.

Kamaal Khan has had his run-ins with the Mumbai police mainly for his social media posts against celebrities and has had several FIRs registered against him for offensive tweets against Dhanush, Akshay Kumar, Ram Gopal Varma, Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. He also had FIRs registered against him on charges of molestation and hurting religious sentiments. He has been arrested by the Mumbai police at least twice and was later released on bail. He also approached the Bombay High Court to quash some of these FIRs.

A senior officer said, “We used a drone to find out the possible trajectory of the bullet and concluded that it came from an altitude and was not fired from the ground.”

A police officer explained that the search was simplified by the layout of the area: right next to Nalanda building lay a stretch of mangroves, followed by an open ground. Right next to the ground stood a bungalow where Kamaal R Khan resided.

Meanwhile, another team began checking the registered weapon owners in the area to see who had access to a firearm that matched the calibre of the bullets that were found. It was then that the team found that Khan had registered his firearm at the Oshiwara police station.

“Given the fact that his house was in the range from where the bullets could have been fired and he owned a firearm that had a similar calibre, we suspected his involvement,” an officer said. It was based on this that Khan was brought in for questioning at the Oshiwara police station on Friday.

As per the police, during interrogation, Khan allegedly confessed that he was testing his licensed gun near the window when the bullets were unintentionally fired. The police are now checking if Khan has all the necessary documents for the firearm, which has since been seized.

Khan was produced before the court on Saturday and was remanded to police custody till January 27. While seeking his custody, the police said that they need his custody to question him regarding the motive behind the firing.

Khan’s lawyer Virendra Mishra, however, argued that the distance between Khan’s residence and Nalanda building was 400 metres and his firearm’s range was not that long. “I further argued that there was no motivation for my client to fire as there was no enmity between them,” Mishra said.

Manish Kumar Pathak is a dedicated journalist reporting for The Indian Express from Mumbai... Read More

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