Mumbai: Four persons linked to a plot to target actor Salman Khan before the firing at his Bandra house in April were arrested by Navi Mumbai police last week. They are looking for at least 15-20 other members of the Bishnoi gang who stayed in the vicinity of Khan’s Panvel farmhouse since Feb this year. The gang has been targeting him over his involvement in the killing of a black buck in 1998 in Rajasthan during the making of a film. The animal is considered sacred for the Bishnoi tribe.

Those arrested have been identified as Dhananjay Tapesingh alias Ajay Kashyap, Gaurav Bhatia alias Nahvi, Vaspi Khan alias Waseem Chikna and Rizwan Khan alias Javed Khan. The conspiracy came to light last month when Panvel police station senior inspector Nitin Thackeray received a tip-off about a plan to carry out an attack on Khan's farmhouse.

“We got to know after the Bandra shooting that Bishnoi had sent men to Navi Mumbai, namely Ajay Kashyap and others who went by the nicknames of Rocky Shooter, Satish Kaur and Sukha Shooter. Most of them may have gone underground since the arrest of the two shooters involved in the Bandra incident,” said an officer. Bishnoi himself is an undertrial in Sabarmati jail.

The four arrested persons have admitted that Kashyap was communicating with a man known as Dogar, a contact based in Pakistan, through video conferencing. Dogar is believed to have shown Kashyap an AK-47 gun wrapped in a shawl and some other sophisticated firearms and told him that if he wanted them he would have to pay 50% upfront first. Kashyap told Dogar his boss Goldie Brar who is in Canada would pay up; the balance was to be paid on delivery of the weapon in India.

Kashyap told police that one John Valmiki was supposed to provide a vehicle for the job. All 18 involved including shooters were to disperse and reassemble at Kanya-kumari afterwards; they were supposed to flee to Sri Lanka by sea. Anmol Bishnoi is said to have made all arrangements, says the FIR.

Kashyap has shared Dogar's mobile number which starts with the Pakistan dialling code ‘92’. Police arrested Kashyap from Kidakpada in Kalamboli and recovered 20 mobile handsets from him. A scrutiny of calls made by Kashyap shows one of his contacts was ‘‘Sukha Shooter’’ who had Anmol Bishnoi's photo as his WhatsApp display picture. Numerous WhatsApp chats and calls were exchanged by the accused with Anmol and Goldie.

The FIR says, “In one conversation Kashyap is heard telling the shooters that however strict security is and despite the bulletproof cars Khan moves in, they would attack him…accused were waiting for delivery of the weapon from Pakistan…accused had already done a recce of Khan's farmhouse, the road leading to his farmhouse, the bus stand and the accused have been camping in the vicinity since August 2023 and making trips to and fro from Sri Ganganagar on the India-Pakistan border, Bihar, Siwan, Gorakhpur on the Nepal border, Tamil Nadu.”

Police said Kashyap was also in contact with a woman named Chinoo Anand Chori, the daughter of a gangster killed in a police encounter a few years ago. Chinoo and Bishnoi have a nexus. Panvel DCP Vivek Pansare confirmed the recent arrests.