Mumbai: Siddhesh Kamble alias Mahakal, an alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, told investigators that Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar was on the list of people the gang planned to target for extortion, a police officer said on Saturday. Was.
But a senior official also warned that these claims were yet to be substantiated and there was a possibility that there was an element of bragging in Kamble’s statements. A police officer said Kamble was a close associate of Santosh Jadhav, the suspected shooter in the Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala murder case and was well aware of the conspiracy to murder.
While in the custody of Pune Rural Police for a case registered earlier in Kamble district, teams of Delhi Police’s Special Cell, Punjab Police and Mumbai Crime Branch interrogated him in connection with the Moosewala murder and a threat letter received by Bollywood actor Salman Is. Khan and his father Salim Khan earlier this month.
The official told PTI that in his statements before the probe team, Kamble disclosed a lot of information about the conspiracy to murder Musewala and named Santosh Jadhav and one Nagnath Suryavanshi involved in the murder. The officer said that he also provided information about the future plans of the Bishnoi gang, which is suspected to be behind the murder of Musewala. He said the gang had allegedly planned to extort Rs 5 crore by threatening Johar.
According to Kamble’s statement, Vikram Brar, brother of Canadian gangster Goldie Brar, had discussed these plans with him on Instagram and Signal app.
A woman involved in drug trafficking and a doctor who allegedly desecrated a holy book of the Sikh community were also on target, the official said. He said the investigating agencies were still verifying Kamble’s claims.
Jadhav and his associate Navnath Suryavanshi were arrested by the Pune Rural Police from Bhuj in Gujarat earlier this week. The officer claimed that after Moosewala’s murder in May, the Bishnoi gang was trying to take advantage of the sensation and had decided to threaten Bollywood celebrities. He said that threatening Salman Khan for extortion was part of this plan hatched by Vikram Brar.
The police had earlier claimed, citing information provided by Kamble, that Vikram Brar had sent three members of the Bishnoi gang to Mumbai to deliver threatening letters to Salman Khan. But a senior Pune Rural Police official cautioned that they are still verifying Kamble’s claim that Karan Johar is the target of extortion.
“With some of the accused, there is an element of bragging in their confessions. The motive behind bragging is to gain publicity and garner huge sums of money. This incident is common in Punjab and other neighboring states. They (gangsters) want that May their names be associated with high-profile cases,” the official said.
He said that five gangsters have claimed responsibility for the Moosewala murder but none of them were present at the spot when the crime took place on May 29 in Punjab’s Mansa district. He said, “Mahakal is a small fish. Vikram Brar told him about Karan Johar. Why did Brar tell this to Mahakal, who is just a foot soldier? Because Brar wants to increase his dominance and influence youth like Mahakal. want.”