Shooting outside Salman’s house: IP address traced

The IP (Internet Protocol) address of the Facebook post claiming responsibility for firing at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s Mumbai residence has been traced to Portugal, a senior police officer said on Monday.

The shooters had, a few days back, conducted a recce around Galaxy Apartment in Bandra where Mr. Khan lives, he said.

Police suspect a VPN (virtual private network) was used for uploading the Facebook post on Sunday, allegedly by Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, he said.

A VPN establishes a digital connection between a computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a pointtopoint tunnel that encrypts personal data, masks IP addresses, and allows the user to sidestep website blocks and firewalls on the Internet.

The FB post claiming responsibility surfaced on Sunday at around 11 a.m.,

The men who fired shots outside Salman Khan’s residence rented a house in Panvel for a month

hours after shots were fired by two unidentified bikeborne men around 5 a.m.

“The IP address of the FB post was traced to Portugal. We are verifying,” the officer added. Notably, the post written in Hindi termed the firing as an “event” and a “trailer”.

Police are also examining CCTV footage of the area to verify whether the shooters were part of the crowd that gathered there on Id on April 11 to catch a glimpse of the actor.

Meanwhile, considering the threat perception, security has been enhanced at the Galaxy Apartment.

A police officer said on Monday that the two alleged shooters had rented a house for a month in Panvel, where Mr. Khan has a farmhouse.

Police teams probing the incident have been sent to Bihar, Rajasthan and Delhi, the officer said.