Tiger shooters got weapons via ‘dead drop’; couriers delivered guns a day earlier

NEW DELHI: The shooters involved in the attack on actor Tiger Shroff received their weapons through a “dead drop” arrangement on Oct 17, just a day before the incident. Couriers Babita and Radha — who have since been arrested — were provided the weapons at New Delhi Railway Station by the main supplier, identified as Kunal.Kunal, who has also been arrested, has emerged as a key character who had been in touch with gangsters Anil Pandit and Randeep Malik for over two months.

He had also figured as the source of the weapon used for the murder of a forex-hawala trader in Sonipat last year, sources said.In this case, he was relaying the instructions from Pandit to the two women after dropping them at the station on Oct 15. The women reached Mumbai on Oct 17, got off at Dadar and checked into a hotel. Around 11am, one of the shooters collected the bag with the weapons at an isolated spot near the hotel, an official added.The dead drop method — borrowed from spycraft — has increasingly surfaced in investigations involving terror modules, drug cartels and organised crime groups of late.

Agencies have unearthed non-contact logistics where handlers use encrypted messaging to direct operatives to pre-arranged locations to collect weapons, funds and synthetic drugs. Some cases in point include IS-linked terror modules, cross-border drone-dropped payloads along the Punjab and J&K frontiers, interstate gang firearm procurements and synthetic drug delivery networks.Investigators reconstruct digital footprints, chat logs and GPS coordinates alongside CCTV footage analysis to establish the timeline.

By using technical surveillance, cell tower dumps and financial intelligence tied to encrypted communications, agencies are able to intercept these isolated drop routines to cut off unverified supplier-courier links, sources said.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.