Mumbai: Police on Tuesday arrested a lawyer from Chhattisgarh in connection with a threat call to kill Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan from a phone number registered in his name.
According to reports, Faizan Khan (42), who also had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh, was arrested from his Raipur residence after he skipped a summon by the Mumbai Police.
The lawyer had previously said he would come to Mumbai on November 14 to give his statement to the Bandra police but later wrote to Mumbai Police Commissioner, requesting that his statement be recorded virtually since he was apprehensive about his safety following a lot of threats over the past two days.
Faizan had also claimed that the mobile phone, which was used to make the threat call last week, was stolen and he lodged a police complaint on November 2, the actor’s birthday.
Stating that the threat call made from his number was a conspiracy against him, the lawyer further alleged that he was being framed for having filed a complaint against Shah Rukh Khan at Bandra police station over a dialogue in his movie Anjaam (1994) referring to deer hunting. He had accused the actor of causing enmity between two religious groups in his complaint.
The threat message was received by Bandra police station last Tuesday, in which the caller identified himself as ‘Hindustani’ and told that he was standing outside the actor’s Mannat residence home in Bandra, and would kill him if he is not paid Rs 50 lakh.
A case was then registered under Sections 308(4) (extortion involving threats of death or serious injury) and 351(3)(4) (criminal intimidation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and traced the call to a mobile number registered in the name of Faizan Khan from Raipur.
Police, however, have not specified the accused’s motive behind making the threat call to kill the actor.