Mumbai police arrest fifth accused in Salman Khan firing case from Rajasthan

Police have also named gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol Bishnoi as wanted accused in the case.

According to Mumbai police Crime Branch, the arrested man, identified as Mohammad Rafiq Chaudhary, was nabbed from a train in Rajasthan and was brought to the city Tuesday afternoon.

A senior officer said Chaudhary had met the shooters Sagar Pal and Vicky Gupta twice in Mumbai and was also involved in conducting a recce of the Bandra residence of Salman Khan. Chaudhary had been in touch with the Bishnoi gang for the past five to six years and was also instrumental in hiring people for the gang, added the officer.

The officer added that the accused Chaudhary hails from Nagaur in Rajasthan and frequently came to Kurla where his cousin had a milk shop and worked there intermittently.

The police have also recovered a video of Salman Khan’s residence that Chaudhary had recorded on his phone two days prior to the attack and sent to Anmol Bishnoi.

The police have further found that over the past few years, Chaudhary had been in touch with Anmol Bishnoi and another Bishnoi gang member Rohit Godara.

The officer added Chaudhary had also been assigned the task to help out Pal and Gupta to get a place to stay and arrange logistics.

On April 14, Sagar Pal, 21, and Vicky Gupta, 24, on a motorcycle fired five rounds outside the residence of Salman Khan.

One of the bullets entered the actor’s balcony. The police arrested Pal and Gupta, who are labourers from Bihar, along with two others who had allegedly provided them with the firearms.

The Mumbai police have said the accused carried out the firing at Khan’s home on the instructions of the Bishnoi gang.

Officers probing the case have told The Indian Express that Pal and Gupta were asked by jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother Anmol to find a place for Anuj Thapan and Sonu — the two attackers. However, Thapan and Sonu went missing two days before the plan was supposed to be executed.

Khan has been on the radar of the Bishnoi gang, which had earlier claimed responsibility for the killing of singer Siddhu Moosewala last year, for the past few years.

Khan allegedly shot a blackbuck, which the Bishnoi community considers a holy animal, while shooting for a movie in Rajasthan in 1998.

Lawrence Bishnoi has been issuing threats to the actor in the past few years in connection with the incident.