Uttar Pradesh Police have traced to Portugal a social media account that was used to claim responsibility for the firing outside actor Disha Patani’s ancestral home in Bareilly on Friday.
The Facebook account was deactivated shortly after the threatening post went viral on Saturday.
Two men on motorcycles had fired at the house of Disha’s father Jagdish Singh Patani, a retired police officer, at 3.46am on Friday and bolted away. The next day, a person identifying himself as Virendra Chaaran claimed on Facebook in Hindi that he was behind the shooting to protest the alleged comments made by Disha and her sister Khushbu about two religious figures — Sant Premanand Maharaj and Aniruddhacharya.
“Jai Sri Ram. Brothers, I organised the firing at the house of Khushbu Patani/ Disha Patani… They had insulted our respected saints (Premanand Ji Maharaj and Aniruddhacharya). She tried to insult Sanatan Dharma,” the post stated and warned against repeating such an act.
Disha and Khushbu, a social media influencer, had on July 29 commented against the two saints of Mathura for their views on live-in relationships. They had removed the post when their followers objected to the remarks, but it had already been shared multiple times by then. Khushbu had later said that her comment was blown out of proportion and she had not intended to insult anybody.
Anurag Arya, senior superintendent of police of Bareilly, claimed the Facebook account was operated from Portugal, and Virendra was a member of a gang involved in murder and extortion in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
“We have formed police teams and sent them to Delhi and Haryana to probe the case and nab the criminals,” he said while confirming that Virendra was on their list of wanted criminals. Virendra hails from Rajasthan and the police had issued a red-corner notice against him in May 2024. He had earlier been arrested with 12kg
of heroin.
Disha’s parents and sister were inside the house when the assailants used a burst-fire pistol to shoot thrice at the building. The police have found nine bullet marks on the house. CCTV cameras had captured the attackers speeding away towards Nainital Road after the firing.
Disha’s mother Padma said she had received a call about the delivery of a parcel a day before the incident.However, she had refused to accept it because she had not ordered anything.
