Mumbai: Adding to the string of death threats, actor Salman Khan has again received a warning to either apologise to the Bishnoi community or cough up Rs5 crore over an alleged blackbuck poaching incident. This marks the second threat against Khan in a week, while a case has been registered at the Worli police station.
Investigation traced the location of the number to Karnataka. The Worli police then shared the information with their Karnataka counterparts, who took a man named Vikram into custody. A team from the Worli police station has already left for the southern state to bring the accused to Mumbai. A police source said that he does a welding job in Bengaluru.
Claiming to be the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the sender issued the threat to the Mumbai traffic police control room late Monday night. “If Salman Khan wants to stay alive, he should go to our (Bishnoi community) temple and apologise or pay Rs 5 crore. If he does not do so, we will kill him; our gang is still active,” read the message. While an investigation has been launched to trace the sender, the actor's security has been stepped up, sources said.
On Tuesday, Advocate Ujjwal Nikam said the involvement of the Bishnoi gang is now evident with the recurring threats. He explained that while the police are tracing the source of these warnings, they can file a case against absconders. “Under the new legislation, the police can file a chargesheet even against absconding accused, while the court can convict them based on tangible evidence,” Nikam said.
On October 29, a man sent a threat message on the traffic police's WhatsApp helpline number, threatening to kill Khan and NCP leader Zeeshan Siddique if they failed to pay up Rs 2 crore. Asserting that his warning should not be taken lightly, the sender said the duo will be killed like Siddique's father, Baba, who was shot dead on October 12.
On October 30, a Bandra resident was arrested and the police had claimed to recover the phone and the SIM card used to give the threat. Later, a man from Noida was also nabbed. Earlier last month, the traffic police's helpline desk had received a threat message demanding Rs5 crore from the actor. Subsequently, a man from Jharkhand was arrested.
