Death threat to SRK: Arrested lawyer remanded to police custody for four days

Raipur lawyer Faizan Khan was arrested for allegedly threatening Shah Rukh Khan for ₹50 lakh. He claims his phone was stolen before the call.

Mumbai: Raipur-based lawyer Faizan Khan, who was arrested on Tuesday after his phone was used to allegedly threaten actor Shah Rukh Khan with physical harm if he did not pay the caller ₹50 lakh, was brought to Mumbai on Thursday, where a court remanded him to police custody for four days.

Death threat to SRK: Arrested lawyer remanded to police custody for four days

The police are trying to find out the motive behind the threat call, according to Dikshit Gedam, deputy commissioner of police (zone 9). However, the police are yet to recover the SIM card that was allegedly used to make the threat call to the Bandra police station landline on November 5.

“We are checking with the Raipur police to find out whether Khan filed a theft complaint as he had claimed earlier,” said a police officer from Bandra police station. “We have some evidence and are investigating to find more against the lawyer,” added the officer.

Khan was arrested on Tuesday after he failed to appear before the Bandra police for questioning regarding the call. The police had traced the call to a number registered with Khan and had dispatched a team to Raipur to question him.

The lawyer had told the police that his phone had been stolen three days before the call and that he had, in fact, filed an FIR about the stolen phone with the Raipur police. While investigating whether his phone was indeed stolen, the police asked Faizan to come to the Bandra police station for further questioning, but he failed to appear.

According to the police, the man who made the threat call had said, “Woh Shah Rukh Mannat Bandstand wala hai na, usne agar mereko pachhas lakh nahi diye toh use maar daalunga (That Shah Rukh from Mannat, Bandstand, if he doesn’t pay me ₹50 lakh, I will kill him).”

When police constable Santosh Dhodke from the Bandra police station asked the caller his name and location, he said, “Woh matter nahi karta, likhna hai toh mera naam Hindustani likho (That doesn’t matter. If you want to write something, write my name as Hindustani).”

The police had then registered a case against the caller under sections 308 (4) (extortion by threatening death) and 351 (3) (4) (criminal intimidation) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sahinta.