A Mumbai crime branch team, conducting a probe into a letter threatening actor Salman Khan and his father, went to Pune on Thursday and questioned Siddhesh Hiraman Kamble alias Mahakal, who is part of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, a police official said.
The police will also ask Kamble about who kept the threatening letter at a bench in Bandra area of Mumbai on Sunday, he said.
Meanwhile, some Delhi Police officials also reached Pune on Wednesday in connection with the probe into the case of murder of popular singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moosewala in Punjab last month, the official said.
The Delhi Police on Wednesday said gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently in their custody, was the mastermind behind Moosewala’s murder.
Maharashtra ADG (Law and Order) Kulwant Kumar Sarangal on Wednesday said Kamble is part of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Another suspect and Kamble’s close associate Santosh Jadhav, also from Pune, has been identified as a shooter in the case of Moosewala’s murder, they had said.
On Thursday morning, a team led by Mumbai’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sangramsingh Nishandar reached the Pune crime branch office and started interrogating Kamble, the official said.
The police are investigating whether the letter threatening writer Salim Khan and his actor son Salman Khan was kept on a bench in Mumbai by members of the Bishnoi gang.
On Sunday, Salman Khan’s father and noted screenplay writer Salim Khan was sitting on a bench at the Bandra Bandstand after a morning walk when an unidentified man kept there a letter which mentioned a threat to kill him and his actor-son.
Later, with the help of his security personnel, Salim Khan contacted the police and an FIR was registered under section 506-II (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code at the Bandra police station.
The police subsequently recorded the statements of Salim Khan and Salman Khan.
Kamble, against whom the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) had been invoked, was wanted by the Pune (rural) police for allegedly sheltering Santosh Jadhav, against whom a murder case was registered at Manchar police station in Pune in 2021.
The official said they have also formed a team to trace Jadhav.
