Bollywood actor Salman Khan received a extortion-cum-death threat from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang on Friday, even as a Panvel court in Navi Mumbai on Friday remanded Sukha alias Sukhbir Balbir Singh, the key accused in the case involving the conspiracy to kill the super star, in police custody for four days.

In view of the fresh threat received by Salman Khan, the police have beefed up security in and around  his residence at Bandra and  farm house at Panvel. The police have also deployed armed personnel outside the studios where Salman Khan is shooting for ‘Bigg Boss 18’.  

On a day when the Worli police registered a case in connection with a Rs 5 crore extortion threat received by the Mumbai traffic police, Sukha -- who was picked up from  Panipat in Haryana by a visiting team of Panvel police--was produced before a court at Panvel in Navi Mumbai. The court remanded him to police custody till October 21. 

Apart from the conspiracy to kill Salman, Sukha will also be questioned in connection with the murder of politician-businessman Baba Siddique. Siddique was a close friend of Salman Khan and several other film personalities.

In the threat message received by the Mumbai traffic police, a gangster close to Lawrence Bishnoi demanded Rs 5 crore from Khan as extortion money. Among other things, the gangster asked the actor to end his long-standing rivalry with incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

The Bishnoi gang member warned the traffic police in his text message saying:  “Don’t take it lightly, if Salman Khan wants to stay alive and wants to end the enmity with Lawrence Bishnoi, then he will have to pay Rs 5 crore. If the money is not given, Salman Khan’s condition will be worse than Baba Siddique.”

The investigations have revealed that  gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had allegedly given Rs 25 lakh ‘supari’ (contract) to kill Salman Khan. The contract to kill Salman Khan was hatched between August 2023 and April 2024. Sukha is a key accused in the conspiracy case. 

The investigations have also revealed that Sukha was in touch with Dogar, his Pakistan-based handler. The accused were preparing to buy state-of-the-art weapons AK 47, AK 92 and M 16 from Pakistan and the Turkish-made Zigana pistol.

Several people belonging to the Bishnoi gang  were keeping track of Salman Khan’s routine and movements, especially at his Bandra house, Panvel farmhouse and Goregaon Film City.

The other accused, who were arrested in the case earlier, were  Dhananjay alias Ajay Kashyap alias Nahvi, Gaurav Bhatia, Waspi Khan alias Wasim Chikna, Rizwan Khan alias Javed, and Deepak Hawa Singh alias John.

It may be recalled that on April 14, 2024, two unidentified motorcycle-borne miscreants, who were covering their faces with helmets, had opened four rounds of fire outside his Bandra (west) residence “Galaxy Apartment” in north-west Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday, before speeding away immediately after the shoot-out.

Following the incident in which Bishnoi gang members were allegedly involved, the Navi Mumbai police registered a case against 18 identified accused and others of the gang for hatching a conspiracy to kill the actor.

Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, his brother Anmol Bishnoi, Sampat Nehra and Rohit Godhara were among the named as accused in the FIR. Canada-based gangster  Satinderjit Singh alias Goldy Brar too has been named in the FIR.