Tiger Shroff (left) after being fired at in Mumbai's Juhu; the accused in custody (File, Express Photo By Ganesh Shirsekar)One of the men arrested for the October 18 shooting at Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff’s car in Juhu has told a special court that he is a minor. If the claim holds, his case leaves the regular criminal process. In that case, he would be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and held in an observation home, not in police custody or jail.The attack took place around 7 pm on October 18 near Pushpa Narsee Park in Juhu, as Shroff was returning from a football match. He escaped unhurt, but his driver and a bystander suffered bullet injuries.The accused in question was arrested on October 19 with Hrithik Mahto alias Roshan, 22, who allegedly rode the motorcycle during the attack, and Rehan Ansari, 19, the other alleged shooter, after the Rajasthan Police caught them in Kota. Police have arrested 13 people in the case so far.Documents filed by his lawyers put his age at 17 on the day of the attack. The police say he is 19. On Friday, the court ordered the police to inquire into his age and report within 15 days. Until then, it refused to move him to an observation home and remanded him, with four others, to police custody till November 11.“When such a claim (of being a minor) is made, it is necessary to direct an inquiry into the matter. The investigation officer is therefore directed to inquire as to whether the accused number 1 was a minor on the date of the incident and report within 15 days,” special judge S R Navander said.The age claimThe police say the accused is 19. Asked by the court to state his age, he said he was 17.His lawyers, Sidhanth Mor and Divyam Gaur, filed a plea through his aunt, attaching his birth certificate and an Aadhaar card issued in Haryana. Both give his date of birth as November 30, 2008. That would make him 17 years and 10 months old on October 18, the day of the shooting, and he would turn 18 on November 30.Story continues below this adThe plea says the police “ought to have ascertained and verified the accused’s actual date of birth before treating him as an adult accused and subjecting him to ordinary police custody proceedings”. It adds that the police did not check his age with the authorities in Haryana, despite documents showing he was a minor.Why the court said no for nowThe court refused to send him to an observation home pending the inquiry. It noted that since his arrest on October 19, he had been produced before courts several times without claiming to be a minor, and said there was a possibility that he raised the plea to avoid custodial interrogation. It will consider the plea again after the police report.Sadaf Modak is a distinguished Legal Correspondent based in Mumbai whose work demonstrates exception... Read More Tags:Tiger Shroff