Lyricist of song dedicated to Salman Khan arrested for threatening actor

A 23-year-old YouTuber, Sohail Pasha, was arrested for threatening Salman Khan, posing as the lyricist of a song dedicated to the actor

Mumbai: In a rather bizarre twist, the man who allegedly threatened to kill Salman Khan and the lyricist of a song dedicated to the actor has turned out to be the lyricist himself, according to the police.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan poses for a photo during the promo shoot of Bigg Boss Season 18, in Mumbai. (ANI Photo) (Sunil Khandare)

The crime branch has arrested a 23-year-old YouTuber from a village in Karnataka’s Raichur district for allegedly sending a threatening message to the Mumbai police’s WhatsApp helpline number on November 7 demanding ₹5 crore from Salman Khan. The sender of the message had also threatened to kill the lyricist of a song dedicated to Khan, ‘Main Sikandar Hoon’, that’s uploaded on YouTube. Khan’s upcoming movie is called ‘Sikandar’.

The investigation has revealed that the arrested accused, Sohail Pasha, also known as Rasul Pasha, is allegedly the lyricist of the aforementioned song. According to the police, Pasha sent the message hoping the actor might think the threat was from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and pay him the money.

Khan and his family have received multiple threats from members of the Bishnoi gang in the recent past. Two men associated with the gang had even fired a few rounds at the actor’s house in Bandra in April.

To avoid detection, the police said Pasha used the phone number of a farmer in his Karnataka village to create a Whatsapp account to send the threat messages. After tracing the messages, a crime branch team headed by inspector Milind Kate, under the guidance of joint commissioner of police (crime) Lakhmi Gautam and deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade, reached the Manvi village in Karnataka’s Raichur district and held a person identified as Venkatesh Narayan from whose number the messages were sent.

“They had thought their work was done. However, when they checked Narayan’s phone, they found he used a basic phone that didn’t have any provisions to install WhatsApp. When they checked his phone, they learnt he had received a few one-time passwords (OTPs) related to the installation of WhatsApp,” said a police officer.

The police then learnt that on November 3, when Narayan had gone to the market, he met a youngster who asked him if he could use his phone to make an urgent call. “Taking pity on him, he gave his phone to him, and the man started the process of installing WhatsApp in Venkatesh’s name on his high-end device. After installing WhatsApp in Venkatesh’s name, he drafted the messages and sent them to the police helpline. He also wrote a threat to himself from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang as he had drafted a song dedicated to Salman Khan,” said the police officer, adding that his motive was to make the song famous.

Pasha was produced before the Sewri court magistrate, Suhas Bhosale, who sent him to police custody for two days.