Rajkumar Santoshi, a builder and a businessman were among 15 persons listed as 'targets' in a list recovered by police from Ejaz Lakdawala's associates.
MUMBAI: Bollywood director Rajkumar Santoshi, a builder and a businessman were among 15 persons listed as 'targets' in a list recovered by police when they arrested six persons associated with gangster Ejaz Lakdawala.
The six persons were nabbed in suburban Juhu on a tip-off while planning to rob a liquor shop on Friday night, police said.
Santoshi is a director of Bollywood hits like 'Ghayal' and 'Khakee'.
The arrested were identified as Roy Sequeira (30), Anthony Lobo (32), Sohail Irani (28), Amjad Ali Shaikh (22), Suraj Yadav (20) and Raju Mayaje (20).
"It has been found that Sequeira and Lobo were affiliated with the Lakdawala gang while Irani was found to be in regular touch with the gangster," Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Bipin Bihari said.
Sequeira and Lobo have a previous criminal record with multiple cases of robbery and extortion against them, he said.
Bihari said that the phone records of Irani had confirmed he was in touch with Lakdawala, a former associate of gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
He, however, refused to comment on whether the police now had accurate data on which country Lakdawala, suspected to be in a south-east Asian country, was residing in on the basis of the data recovered from Irani's phone.
The six had been given a list consisting of ten to fifteen targets whom they would have to murder in return for which Lakdawala would pay them, police sources said.
The six were produced before a local court on Saturday, which remanded them to police custody till May 25.
The police also recovered a pistol and three country-made revolvers from four of the accused which they were to use to rob the liquor store.
Among the names found on the list recovered from the gangsters included the names of a builder based in the suburbs, a software businessman in south Mumbai, the owner of a club in suburban Bandra and others, police sources said.
They said it is suspected that they might have received threatening calls from Lakdawala in the recent past and the six were among those who were to frighten the persons into paying the extortion amount to the gangsters' associates.
However, Bihari refused to comment on whether those whose names were listed were among those who had sought protection from the police after receiving extortion calls.
Lakdawala, a gangster and extortionist, was originally with the Dawood Ibrahim gang but presently is suspected to have operations of his own in the city.
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