Juhu Shooting: Samir Recalls Chaos as Arrests Hit 10

What began as a Sunday birthday party for a nine-year-old at a football ground in Juhu became one of Mumbai’s most talked-about security scares, as actor Samir Kochhar recounted the moments before gunfire targeted Tiger Shroff’s car.

A party cut short by panic

Samir was celebrating his daughter Sara’s ninth birthday on October 18 at a Juhu football ground. Tiger Shroff, who plays football with the same All-Stars group, was on the adjoining half of the field and stopped by to meet the children and pose for pictures before his game.

As the party wound down, Tiger walked back through, met a few more kids and got into his car. Samir told India Today that he offered the actor something to eat, but Tiger declined, saying he was on his usual strict diet, and drove out shortly before the chaos began.

Crackers, then screaming at the gate

The first loud sounds did not register as danger. With festive-season firecrackers going off around the city, Samir said the group assumed the noise was festive. Then people near the gate began screaming that Tiger had been shot.

“We went running to the gate to see what had happened. Tiger had just sped off at that point, but we were shocked to realise what had happened,” Samir recalled. The children at the party were frightened, and the adults quickly stepped in to keep them safe while some parents were still on the way.

Bunty Sajdeh left for the police station before catching up with Tiger, Samir said, while Samir himself kept in touch through Bunty Walia and heard that the actor was doing okay.

The investigation widens to 10 arrests

Mumbai Police have added seven arrests from Haryana, taking the total in the case to 10 and stating that two of the accused are women. The investigation now covers several threads:

• Alleged links among the accused and with gangster Anil Pandit
• How the weapon was brought into Mumbai
• Possible use of encrypted communication to plan the attack
• An alleged firearm supply network connected to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang

That last point matters because encrypted communication scrambles messages so only the sender and intended recipient can read them, making planning harder for investigators to trace. Police said three men on a motorcycle fired at Tiger’s vehicle in Juhu on October 18. The actor escaped unharmed; his driver and a passer-by were injured.

Why this matters for Bollywood and Mumbai

For Hindi film fans, the incident is a sharp reminder that even the city’s familiar, starry weekend rituals can turn unsafe. For the industry, it adds to rising concern about celebrity security in Mumbai, where high-profile names have faced threats and attacks in recent years.

Samir said it was too early to say whether the Sunday football group would feel safe returning to the ground, but he was relieved the children were okay and that Tiger was not hurt. “Something is amiss somewhere,” he told India Today, adding that police measures and information-gathering need to be tighter so people are not afraid to move around the city.

Source: India Today