Underworld don Ravi Pujari had ordered his men to open fire outside actor Shah rukh Khan's office and director Farah Khan's residence as part of an extortion bid, police said. Police also said the gang had planned to shoot at producer Mahesh Bhatt, so as to create panic in the film industry. Thirteen gang members were on Monday arrested outside Bhatt's office in Khar before they could execute their plan.
GANG KEPT WATCH OVER SHAHRUKH, FARAH'S PLACES
The accused arrested by the police said they had conducted recces outside Shahrukh Khan's Santacruz office and Farah Khan's Bandra residence.
"The accused had done recces of the residence of director Farah Khan and the office of Red Chillies owned by film actor Shahrukh Khan," said additional commissioner of police (Crime) K M M Prasanna. He added, "The accused had checked out the entry points and exits at both the places and were aware about the numbers of guards and the places where they were posted."
The interrogation of the arrested accused revealed that the address of Shahrukh's office and Farah's residence had been given to them by one Obaid Radiowala from New Jersey, who is also one of the wanted accused in Bhatt's case.
PUJARI WAS GETTING DESPERATE FOR RESULTS
A crime branch source said, "Apparently, Pujari did not get any mileage after having conducted a firing outside (film producer Ali) Morani's residence (in August). So, to send out a much stronger message, he had ordered his henchmen to carry out a recce outside the house of these two Bollywood bigwigs."
A crime branch officer about the plot against Bhatt, "The gang kept a watch on the movements of Bhatt for nearly two months, but could not succeed in their plan."
Police said that on Tuesday, the crime branch also recovered one more country-made pistol and five live rounds from arrested accused, Sufian Dilshaad and Faiz Naeem, who had allegedly buried the weapons in a garden in Nallasopara.
The officer added, "The weapons were brought from Madhya Pradesh for Rs 80,000."
SHAIKH WAS TO LEAD THE ATTACKS
The leader of the arrested men, Ishrat Shaikh, had been allegedly involved in underworld activities since 1994-95. "Since Ishrat was in a poor financial condition, and was worried about the future of his four daughters, he approached Anees Merchant. Merchant, in turn, got him in touch with Pujari. Ishrat then recruited men for the job on the instructions of Pujari," the officer said.
The police sources claimed that Ishrat and Anees earlier worked for the Ejaz Lakdawala gang; they were arrested in 2007 by Lucknow police for transporting weapons meant to be used to shoot music composer Himesh Reshammiya at Lakdawala's behest.
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