Three men from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang had moved to Mumbai and stationed themselves near Salman Khan’s Panvel farmhouse. The trio in an attempt to gather information would follow the actor’s car and also befriended the security guards at his house by pretending to be his fans
Three men from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, who were trailing Salman Khan, knew that the actor always travelled with his bodyguard Shera. PTI
Actor Salman Khan has been living under a cloud of death threats. On Thursday, the Delhi Police made startling revelations about how gangsters had made detailed plans on how to kill the Bollywood superstar at his Panvel farmhouse, near Mumbai.
The new revelations came to light as the Punjab Police continue their investigations in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala — who was killed earlier in May.
Here’s what we know about the plan hatched to kill the actor.
Plan B for Salman
It has been revealed that in the run-up to the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala, dreaded gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had hatched a detailed plan to murder the 57-year-old actor.
Leading this plan was Kapil Pandit, a sharpshooter of the Goldie Brar-Lawrence Bishnoi gang, who was recently arrested from the Indo-Pak border in a joint operation by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police and Punjab Police.
Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell of Delhi Police, HGS Dhaliwal told the media that Pandit along with his associates Santosh Jadhav and Sachin Bishnoi Thapan had conducted a recce of not just Khan’s house in Mumbai’s suburban area of Bandra but also his farmhouse in Panvel.
“The three of them had rented a room in Panvel in Mumbai’s Waze area. Salman Khan owns a farmhouse in the Panvel area and the accused had rented a house along the route to carry out the murder. One of the shooters from the gang had rented a house on the way to Salman Khan’s farmhouse and stayed there for about one-and-a-half months,” said Dhaliwal.
The three accused were also tracking Salman’s car; they had realised that since the actor’s name had emerged in the hit-and-run case, he was very careful about car speeds and would normally drive at a very low speed.
Apart from this, Bishnoi’s men had also befriended the security guards at Salman’s by pretending to be his fans so that they could get information about the actor’s movements.
Investigations reveal that during their stakeout in April, Salman had visited his farmhouse twice. However, the gangsters missed their chance on both occasions, the police said.
Salman on Lawrence Bishnoi’s radar
Salman Khan has been on the radar of dreaded gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is a key accused in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala case, over the 1998 blackbuck poaching case.
It has been reported that Bishnoi wanted to kill Salman Khan because of the 1998 Chinkara poaching case in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, which occurred during the filming of the movie named Hum Saath Saath Hain.
Bishnoi reportedly stated that Chinkara, or blackbucks, are sacred to the Bishnoi community in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Punjab.
In fact, Bishnoi had hatched an elaborate plan to kill Salman in 2018 as the trial of the blackbuck case was being held. According to a News18 report, Bishnoi had revealed that he had asked Rajasthan-based gangster and his accomplice Sampat Nehra to do a recce of the actor’s house in Bandra, Mumbai.
However, at that time, Nehra couldn’t get a clear shot at Salman Khan as he was armed with only a pistol. The gangster then ordered a Rs 4 Lakh RK spring rifle through a man identified as Dinesh Fauji, who lived in the same village as Nehra. This rifle was later recovered from Fauji’s possession.
In June this year, Salman and his father, Salim Khan, had received a threat letter that read: “Salim Khan, Salman Khan bahut jald aapka Moose Wala hoga… (you will end up like Moose Wala)”.
Mumbai police had confirmed Bishnoi gang’s involvement in the letter.
Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is the key accused in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala. PTI
Who is Lawrence Bishnoi?
In the limelight for his involvement in the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala and death threats against Salman Khan, Bishnoi, 31, is believed to be the leader of a 700-member gang that has allegedly been involved in several murders and extortion cases in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
Hailing from Dutaranwali, a village near Abohar in Punjab’s Fazilka district, Bishnoi’s father was in the Punjab Police.
During his college years, he became involved in student politics and also began having run-ins with the law.
According to the Indian Express, the first case against Bishnoi was of attempt to murder, in 2010. A case of assault and robbery was also filed in 2011. He allegedly had connections with gangster-turned-politician Jaswinder Singh, who was gunned down in 2016.
Bishnoi was arrested in 2017 and has been in Bharatpur jail in Rajasthan since then, but still manages to run his group from prison.
With inputs from agencies
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