New Delhi: A chargesheet filed by Navi Mumbai Police states that a Rs 25-lakh contract was taken out to kill Salman Khan near his farmhouse at Panvel in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.
As per the chargesheet, which has named five people, the contract was taken out by the jailed Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang, reported NDTV.
The accused persons were preparing to buy state-of-the-art weapons such as AK 47, AK 92 and M 16 from Pakistan and Turkish-made Zigana weapon, with which Punjabi singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead.
Boys under 18 years of age — who are hiding in Pune, Raigad, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Gujarat – were hired by the accused to eliminate the Bollywood superstar.
After the plan to kill Salman was hatched between August 2023 and April 2024, 60 to 70 people were tracking his movement, mainly at his Bandra house, Panvel farmhouse and Goregaon Film City, as per the chargesheet.
Sukkha, who was arrested from Panipat on Thursday, assigned the hit to designated shooter Ajay Kashyap alias AK and four others. Kashyap and his team carried out the recce and came to the conclusion that high-end weapons will be required to carry out the crime because of Salman’s tight security and bulletproof vehicles.
Sukkha then contacted Dogar, a Pakistan-based arms dealer, to negotiate terms of the arms deal. Once both parties agreed, Sukha committed to a 50 per cent advance payment with the remaining amount to be paid on delivery in India.
Further, police investigation revealed that all shooters were waiting for a green signal from Canada-based gangster Goldie Brar and Lawrence’s brother Anmol Bishnoi.
The plan was for the shooters to gather in Kanyakumari after completing the job, and travel to Sri Lanka by boat before fleeing to a country where it would be difficult for Indian investigation agencies to reach them.