‘Gulshan Kumar ka wicket lagne wala hai’: IPS officer reveals chilling warning before T-Series founder’s assassination

Gulshan Kumar was assassinated in August 1997 in Mumbai in broad daylight outside the Jiteshwar Mahadev Mandir.

Gulshan Kumar was shot dead while he was coming out of a temple in Mumbai on August 12, 1997. (File Photo)

Rakesh Maria, the IPS officer who worked on the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, recently spoke about the tragic death of T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar. The music mogul was assassinated in August 1997 in Mumbai in broad daylight outside the Jiteshwar Mahadev Mandir, a temple he visited regularly. He was ruthlessly shot 16 times. During a recent interview, Rakesh Maria shared details about how he had been informed that Gulshan Kumar was a target of the underworld, months before his death. For the unversed, underworld member Dawood Merchant was convicted for Gulshan Kumar’s murder in 2002.

Speaking to Raj Shamani, Rakesh said, “In April 1996, late in the night at 3 am, I get a call on my landline and that person told me that Gulshan Kumar ka wicket lagne wala hai (is going to die). He told me Abu Salem is doing this and he is planning to get him shot outside Shiv Mandir, which Gulshan regularly visited.”

Rakesh shared that he immediately called filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who then warned Gulshan Kumar about the threat. He explained, “In the morning, I call Mahesh Bhatt and he was directing a film with Gulshan Kumar at that time. I told Mahesh to tell Gulshan not to leave his house on that day. Meanwhile, I called the crime branch and asked them to give protection to Gulshan Kumar.”

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Rakesh further revealed that after issuing the warning and ensuring police protection for Gulshan Kumar, he forgot about the call. However, months later, he received the shocking news of the music mogul’s assassination. He said, “After that, I forgot about it, but in August, I got to know that Gulshan Kumar has been shot outside Shiv Temple. I was shocked because I thought we had provided him protection.”

Rakesh alleged that since several months had passed since the initial warning, both Gulshan Kumar and his security personnel had become lenient, which resulted in him travelling alone to the same Shiv temple where he was eventually shot. He said, “Then I got to know that Mumbai police had given him protection, but he had a huge cassette factory in Noida and so the UP police had provided him with a big contingent of guards. They were there with him, but over a period of time, lethargy sets in because people would be thinking that they got the information about Gulshan being the target a long time ago and nothing happened. So, some festival was there and these bodyguards took leave, so he came without a guard to the Shiv temple one day and he was killed there.”

Gulshan Kumar’s assassination was a chilling event in the Hindi film industry.

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