Salman Khan: Jamshedpur vegetable vendor sent WhatsApp death threat message to Salman Khan | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: A week after an anonymous message to Mumbai traffic police’s WhatsApp helpline demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crore from actor Salman Khan, Worli police on Wednesday arrested a 24-year-old man from Jamshedpur for allegedly sending the threat.
The Oct 17 message, which was traced to Hussain Shaikh, a vegetable vendor in Jamshedpur, had invoked jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and had said that if Khan did not agree to pay up, he would face the same fate as that of NCP politician Baba Siddique, who was shot dead on Oct 12 in Bandra East.
Two days after the ransom demand, Shaikh had sent another message, apologising for sending the threat.
A Worli police source said a Jamshedpur court granted his transit remand. “He is being brought to Mumbai and will be produced in a court here for his policy custody.”
After Worli police registered an FIR, a team led by senior inspector Ravindra Katkar began a probe. Police studied the call data records of the message sender, obtained his address and location, and reached Jamshedpur. A police source said Shaikh fled while they were questioning his relatives about him. He was found later and arrested. Police are scrutinising his social media accounts.
A few days after the threat, the police helpline had received another message from a different mobile number warning that if a ransom was not paid, the actor would be shot. “While probing this threat, our team reached Guwahati and found that it was a 17-year-old boy who had sent the message. Our team issued a notice to his parents,” the source said.
The Bishnoi gang has been linked to several threats to Khan and is suspected of firing at his house in Bandra on April 14. In March 2023, Khan’s personal assistant had received a warning mail on behalf of Bishnoi’s aide Goldy Brar, which highlighted the gangster’s interview that was aired from jail and said his life’s goal was to kill the actor. In June 2022, Khan’s father, Salim, came across a threat letter that was kept on a bench at Bandra Bandstand.