Accused claims influenced by Lawrence Bishnoi, no intention to harm Salman Khan

On the morning of April 14, four rounds were fired outside Khan’s Bandra residence. Bishnoi and his brother Anmol are among the ones named wanted accused in the case with the Mumbai police claiming that the crime was done with the aim of getting pecuniary and other advantage for his gang.

“The applicant (Gupta) was actually influenced by the character of gangster of Mr Lawrence Bishnoi from the electronic, print and social meida and was magnetically attached to the principles followed by Mr Bishnoi, as he was the ardent follower of Mr Bhagat Singh,” the bail plea filed through lawyers Amit Mishra and Pankaj Ghildiyal said.

The plea states that Gupta has no previous criminal antecedents and that he had committed the crime due to his circumstances, including the debt upon him as he lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The application also claims that Gupta was not aware about the offence till a day before the firing. He claimed that he had lost a job in Tamil Nadu due to the Covid-19 pandemic and had then contacted co-accused Sagar Pal.

Pal allegedly helped him at one point by giving him Rs 500 and subsequently informed him of a job vacancy as a driver in Punjab.

“The applicant states that the accused no 2 (Pal) informed him that they have to visit Mumbai for one auspicious religious mission. …as the applicant was in dire need of money to feed his family, he was having no other alternatives but to visit Mumbai. Applicant was not aware about the said alleged incident till April 13,” the plea states.

It says that he had received instructions from Anmol to only ‘give apprehension’ to Khan for the alleged killing of a blackbuck, which is worshipped by the Bishnoi community, and that there was no intention to harm Khan.

Gupta also claimed that Anmol had given him the confidence that nothing will happen to him for his involvement in the crime. Gupta claimed that he comes from a remote village in Bihar and had ‘deviated’ as he did not receive family love and compassion during his lifetime.

Gupta also said that the only role given to him was that of riding the bike on the day of the crime, on which co-accused Pal sat pillion and fired outside Khan’s residence.