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A 56-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly sending a message to the Mumbai traffic police, threatening to kill Bollywood superstar Salman Khan and Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party leader Zeeshan Siddique if they failed to pay up Rs 2 crore, an official said.
The man, Azam Mohammed Mustafa, on Tuesday sent the threat message on the traffic police's WhatsApp helpline number, saying the two will meet the same fate as former state minister Baba Siddique, father of Zeeshan Siddique, and his warning should not be treated as a joke, he said.
Baba Siddique was shot dead by three gunmen in the Bandra area on October 12.
The Worli police initially registered a case against an unidentified person after receiving the message and launched an investigation.
On Wednesday, they arrested Mustafa, a resident of Blue Fame Apartment in Bandra (West), an upscale area where Khan also resides, and recovered the mobile phone and the SIM card used in the crime, said the official.
During the probe, police collected the Call Detail Record of the mobile number from which the message was sent and formed a team to crack the case.
Based on technical inputs, they nabbed the accused from Bandra, he said.
Mustafa, in his message to the traffic police, said, "Ye ek mazak nahi hai Baba Siddique ko kaise khatam kiya agla nishana Zeeshan Siddiqui hai aur Salman Khan ko bhi same tarah goli mar di jaegi. Salman Khan aur Zeeshan Siddiqui ko 2 cr rupee dene bolo agar jaan bachana hai toh usko mazak mein mat lena ya koi joke 31 October ke din pata chaljayega. Warning to Zeeshan Siddiqui and Salman Khan" (Salman Khan and Zeeshan Siddiqui will meet the same fate as Baba Siddiqui if they fail to pay up Rs 2 crore. This threat should not be treated as a joke or taken lightly).
Earlier this month, the Mumbai traffic police's WhatsApp helpline desk had received a threat message demanding Rs 5 crore from the actor.
The police had then arrested a man from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand in connection with the threat message.
The Mumbai police on Monday arrested a man from Noida in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly issuing a death threat to Khan and NCP leader Zeeshan Siddique, whose father Baba Siddique, was shot dead by three gunmen on October 12 in Bandra (East).
Notably, Khan had earlier received death threats from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Suspected members of the dreaded gang had opened fire outside the actor's Bandra home in April this year.
A few months back, the Navi Mumbai police uncovered a plot by the Bishnoi gang to kill Khan after which his security was stepped up.