Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had plotted to have actor Salman killed earlier too (File)
Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, whose sensational plot to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan was uncovered in 2018 following the arrest of the former's associate Sampat Nehra, had floated a "Plan B" in the months leading up to the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in May this year, the police in Delhi and Punjab have said.
Leading this plan was Kapil Pandit, a sharpshooter of the Goldie Brar-Lawrence Bishnoi gang, who was recently arrested from the Indo-Pak border in a joint operation by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police and Punjab Police.
Pandit and his associates Santosh Jadhav and Sachin Bishnoi Thapan had even rented a room in Panvel, near Mumbai, to recce a farmhouse that Salman Khan owned in the area.
Their hideout was on the same road that led to the farmhouse from Mumbai, and the gangsters stayed there for more than a month earlier this year, the police have said. All of them had small arms, and pistol cartridges that they planned to use to attack Salman Khan.
According to the police, the shooters even knew that since Salman Khan's hit-and-run case, his car is usually driven at moderate speeds.
They also knew that whenever Salman Khan visited his farmhouse in Panvel he usually only had his bodyguard Shera with him and not a huge security detail.
During their stay, the gangsters managed to track down the route that led to Salman Khan's farmhouse in Panvel and judging by the potholes, they surmised that the actor's car could only be travelling at around 25 km per hour on that patch of the road.
Lawrence Bishnoi's men even befriended the security guards at Salman Khan's farmhouse by pretending to be his fans so that the shooters could get information about the actor's movements.
During their stakeout around April, Salman Khan visited the farmhouse twice. However, the gangsters missed their chance on both occasions, the police said.