The opening of fire at actor Salman Khan’s house in Bandra with a 7.62mm self-loading rifle on Sunday is the dreaded Lawrence Bishnoi’s announcement that it has arrived in the nation’s financial capital. The gangs led by Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan and Arun Gawli have, over the years, made thousands of crores and now they do not feel the need to extort money from Bollywood celebs, real estate tycoon et al.

The Bishnoi gang is seeking to fill in the vacuum left by the effective exit of home-grown organised gangs in areas like extortion, kidnapping etc. There is more money to be made through extortion of Bollywood heroes who are paid upwards of Rs 100 crore per film. And Khan easily falls into that category. “The black bucks case is only a pretext to knock off money from the actor who is in the big league,” an underworld source said.

Firing Incident raises Questions Against Bishnoi Gang Activities

Sunday’s shooting incident raises several questions. Prime among them is whether the Bishnoi gang, which has owned up to the firing, acted alone or did it take the help of local criminals. One thing is clear and that is that the gang had done thorough recce of the actor’s residence at Galaxy apartments, either on its own or had outsourced that chore to local criminals. The attackers moved in on a motorcycle when there was hardly any police presence in the vicinity of the Galaxy building even though the actor has been given Y category security.

Backgrounder Into Salman Khan’s Situation

The actor’s apartment is most vulnerable since it is on the first floor above a few shops, which directly open to the public street. It is said the gang’s intention was to give “hoolpatti” (create a scare) to Khan and it appears to have succeeded in that. The Khan household is understandably completely shaken by the incident. In the past, several Bollywood celebrities have attended parties thrown by the ‘bhais’ in Mumbai, Dubai and other places. Notably, Khan has been assiduously keeping himself away from them. However, a local politician of Bandra, known to be in touch with the D gang, has been trying to cultivate him without much success. In fact, a top source said this particular politician, who is known to stoop to low level, may have given ‘supari’ to the Bishnoi gang’s second-rung leader Rohit Godara to scare Salman.

Bishnoi Gang Targeting Celebrities

The Bishnoi gang is known to target celebrities. The cold-blooded murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala in May 2022 and Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Gogamedi are cases in point. Bishnoi has extensively networked with Goldy Brar and other gangs in Punjab, Haryana and a few other states. Now he has spread his tentacles to Mumbai even as he is incarcerated in Tihar jail. He is reported to have 500 shooters in different states under his command.

Salman Khan Under Bishnoi Gang’s Radar Since Black Buck Case

Khan has been in his radar for the past several years. In 2018, Sampath Nehra, a Bishnoi gang member, carried out a recce of the actor’s residence since he was tasked to kill him for allegedly hunting down a black buck. Bishnoi himself had stated earlier that “Salman Khan will be killed in Jodhpur… Then, he will come to know about our real identity.” With Bishnoi determined to attack the actor, the latter’s lifestyle will thereafter be severely cramped.