In a twist into the threat message received by Mumbai police claiming to kill actor Salman Khan and one Sohel Pasha, the lyricist of a song in his upcoming film, the police have found it was allegedly the 24-year-old Pasha himself who sent the threat for publicity.
According to a media report, the crime branch nailed Pasha from Raichur in Karnataka and handed him over to the Worli police station. An officer said that on November 7, the Mumbai traffic police received a threat message which said that if Rs5 crore was not paid, Salman and Sohel would be killed. An FIR was registered in the case at Worli police station.
The Mumbai crime branch, which was probing the matter, traced the mobile number from which the message was sent. The number turned out to be that of one Venkatesh Narayanan in Karnataka.
The police, however, found that he had a basic phone and did not have WhatsApp. Police found a message on the phone that had an OTP to install WhatsApp on November 3. When the police questioned him about it, he said that on that day he went to the bazaar in Raichur, Karnataka to purchase groceries.
There a man met him and said that due to a family emergency, he needed his phone to make a call as his phone was not operating. The person was later identified as Pasha by the police. A police team then went to his residence and placed him under arrest.
An officer said that on questioning, Pasha told them he wanted publicity and felt with the kind of attention that threats to Salman Khan were getting, he felt it would make him popular if he added his own name as well.