A Mumbai crime branch team on Monday launched a search in the Tapi river in Gujarat's Surat city to recover the pistol used by two men for allegedly firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence, police said.

The two arrested men - Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21) - told the police during interrogation that they threw the weapon into the Tapi river here from a railway bridge when they were fleeing towards Bhuj in a train after arriving in Surat by road from Mumbai following the firing incident, according to sources.

The duo allegedly fired outside 58-year-old Khan's house at the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra area of Mumbai on April 14 and then fled the spot on a motorbike.

Based on the technical surveillance, they were apprehended on April 16 from a temple premises at Mata No Madh near Bhuj town in Gujarat by joint teams of the Mumbai and Kutch police.

They were subsequently handed over to the Mumbai police for further investigation.

"A team of Mumbai police has come to Surat to recover the gun used by two men for firing at Salman Khan's residence there. Our teams are assisting the Mumbai police in recovering the weapon," Surat Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot told PTI.

Senior police inspector Daya Nayak, known as 'encounter specialist', was also with the Mumbai crime branch team which was searching for the weapon in the Tapi river water here with the help of local divers and fishermen, another official said.

As per the investigation, Gupta and Pal had reached Surat by road after firing at Khan's house in Mumbai on April 14.

They then boarded a Bhuj-bound train from Surat railway station. They disposed of the pistol in the Tapi river when the train was passing from a bridge in the city.

Prima facie, the duo's main objective behind firing outside Khan's residence was to create "terror", police had said.

The Mumbai police have declared jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his younger brother Anmol Bishnoi as "wanted accused" in connection with the incident.

Gupta and Pal were allegedly receiving instructions from the two Bishnoi brothers, the Mumbai police have said.

While Lawrence Bishnoi is lodged in the Sabarmati central prison in Gujarat in another case, his brother is believed to be in Canada or the US, an official earlier said.

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