Man who threatened Salman Khan apologies for his ‘mistake‘

On 18 October, a week after Baba Siddique's murder, the Mumbai Traffic Police received a WhatsApp message threatening actor Salman Khan and extorting Rs 5 crore from him.

However, the man who sent the threat to the actor demanding money to end the actor's "enmity" with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has now sent another message saying it was a mistake.

"Don't take this lightly. If Salman Khan wants to stay alive and end the enmity with Lawrence Bishnoi, he must pay Rs 5 crore. If the money is not given, his condition will be worse than Baba Siddique's," the threat message said.

After Siddique's murder and the shooting incident outside Khan's residence in Bandra earlier, security was beefed up and with the laestes threat, Khan's security was heightened even more so.

Officials said upon tracing the original message, a team from Mumbai to was led to Jharkhand to find the man behind it.

Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, who claimed responsibility of Siqqidue's murder, said he was targeted due his closeness to Dawood Ibrahim and Salman Khan. He also claimed Anuj Thapan's death in police custody, who was an arrested suspect of the shooting outside Khan's residence is another motivation.

"We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order ('hisaab-kitaab kar lena')," Lonkar wrote in Hindi in the Facebook post.

On October 12, Siddique was killed by three shooters outside the office of his son and MLA Zeeshan Siddique in Bandra East. Two of the shooters had been arrested soon after the murder. 

However, the five accused who were arrested in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case the day before (17 October) had demanded Rs 50 lakh for the job, but backed out later due to disagreement over payment and also considering the slain politician's clout, officials said.