Rajasthan man detained in Salman Khan threat case

The man identified as Dhakadram Bishnoi, a resident of Jodhpur, was nabbed in a joint operation by Mumbai and Rajasthan police. A police team bringing the accused was expected to reach Mumbai in the early hours of Monday

Mumbai: A 21-year-old man from Rajasthan was apprehended on Sunday in connection with an e-mail threatening actor Salman Khan.

Rajasthan man detained in Salman Khan threat case

The man identified as Dhakadram Bishnoi, a resident of Jodhpur, was nabbed in a joint operation by Mumbai and Rajasthan police. A police team bringing the accused was expected to reach Mumbai in the early hours of Monday.

The e-mail in question was received by the actor’s team on March 18 from a person identifying himself as Rohit Garg. It began with telling the recipient that Goldy Bhai (Brar) wanted to meet his boss. Subsequently, an FIR was filed by Khan’s close aide artist manager Prashant Gunjalkar.

The police began investigation and found that the e-mail was sent from Jodhpur in Rajasthan and forwarded the information to their counterparts in Jodhpur. Further investigation revealed that the e-mail was sent by Dhakadram Bishnoi, a resident of Siyago ki Dhani in Jodhpur and the hunt for the accused began. On Sunday, Jodhpur police along with Bandra police station’s assistant sub-inspector Bajrang Jagtap detained Dhakadram.

Ishwar Chand Pareek, station house officer (SHO), Luni police station, Jodhpur, said that earlier, the Punjab police team also came to Rajasthan in search of Dhakadram in a case registered at Sadar Mansa police station. The police said that the accused had also sent an e-mail to slain Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s father and threatened to kill him. According to Pareek, a case under the Arms Act is also registered against the accused.

The accused in the threat e-mail to Khan had mentioned that he believes Khan would have seen the interview, in reference to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s recent interview with a news channel.

Talking from his jail cell, Bishnoi had said that killing Khan was the goal of his life. He had even said that the entire situation could be resolved if the actor apologised to the Bishnoi community in their temple in Rajasthan for killing a blackbuck. “If the community forgives him, I will no longer be on the lookout for a chance to kill him,” he had said in the interview.

In his statement to the police, the complainant said that the e-mail went on to say that the actor could talk to Brar to close the matter. “Abhi time rehte inform kar diya hai, agli baar jhatka hi dekhne ko milega (We have informed you this time, next time you will get a shock),” the mail said.

The police had then registered a case against the unknown sender of the e-mail, Lawrence Bishnoi and Brar under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The gangster had extended a similar threat to the actor in 2018 when one of his henchmen was found to be conducting a recce of the actor’s house.

The actor was booked in four cases in Jodhpur, in two cases, he was booked for allegedly hunting chinkara, one against poaching two blackbucks, in which the Jodhpur trial court sentenced him to five years of imprisonment in 2018, and the fourth for possessing illegal arms.

Khan was acquitted in the arms act case and the chinkara hunting case. In the blackbuck hunting case, a court granted bail to the actor after he spent two nights at the Jodhpur Central Jail.