In a shocking turn of events, the Mumbai Police arrested a budding songwriter for sending threatening messages to Salman Khan and demanding a ransom of Rs 5 crore. Sohail Pasha was arrested from Raichur in Karnataka by the crime branch and handed over to the Worli police station for further investigation. When questioned, Pasha revealed that he did this for publicity.
What’s the case?
On November 7, the Mumbai Police’s WhatsApp helpline received a series of threatening messages from an unknown person, who threatened to kill Salman Khan and the songwriter of the song ‘Main Sikander Hun.’ The accused demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crore. According to a report by NDTV, the threatening message sent by Pasha read: “The songwriter’s condition will be such that he will no longer be able to write songs. If Salman Khan has the courage, he should save them.”
It is worth noting that the threats were sent in the name of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who has been in the news for his rift with the actor regarding the blackbuck hunting case.
Police Arrests The Accuse
When Mumbai Police tracked down the number, they found it was registered in the name of Vyankatesh Narayan from Raichur. A team was immediately dispatched to Karnataka to interrogate the accused. However, officials found that Narayan’s mobile phone had no internet facility.
Police further investigated and found that his phone had received a WhatsApp installation OTP. When questioned, Narayan informed them that on November 3, he went to a marketplace, where a stranger asked to borrow his cell phone to make an emergency call.
“Probe revealed that the man had installed WhatsApp on his own mobile using Narayan’s mobile number to obtain an OTP,” an official shared.
The person was later identified as Pasha, the songwriter of Main Sikander Hun – a song in Salman’s upcoming film. He was arrested from Manavi village near Raichur, and upon questioning, confessed that he did it to popularise the song as well himself. He told police officials that he wanted the song to become famous and decided to send a message to a famous person, by including his name in the text.
Pasha was later taken to Mumbai and handed over to Worli police.