Chandigarh: Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on the target list on instructions from jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who orchestrated the killing of famed Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Sunday.

Salman Khan had received a threat days after Moosewala murder in Punjab’s Mansa district on May 29

The preliminary interrogation of Moosewala murder accused Kapil Pandit revealed that he was approached by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang through Sampat Nehra and Canada-based fugitive Goldy Brar to carry out the killing of Salman Khan, the state police chief told the media here.

Santosh Jadhav, who was arrested in Maharashtra in the Moosewala killing, and Sachin Thapan, who has been detained in Azerbaijan, were also part of the module to allegedly target Salman Khan.

Salman Khan had received a threat days after Moosewala murder in Punjab’s Mansa district on May 29.

“They had done an elaborate recce and they spent a lot of time in Mumbai and we will also verify this angle in the investigation,” Yadav said, adding that “the disclosures on targeting Salman Khan were preliminary and yet to be corroborated. We can even send a team to Mumbai”.

Pandit, during interrogation, revealed that earlier also, he had carried out recce for several times with intention to kill Moosewala at the behest of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to avenge the killing of youth Akali leader Vicky Middukhera’s murder, the DGP added.

Pandit got parole to attend the last rites of his mother and has been absconding since then for the murder of a person in his native Bewad village in Rajasthan’s Churu district.

The DGP said concerted efforts are being made to arrest the gangsters who had escaped overseas. As a result, gangster Thapan has been detained in Azerbaijan, and soon he will be extradited to India.

The police have submitted a challan against 24 accused in this case, he added.

Punjab Police on Saturday arrested the sixth and last shooter — Deepak Mundi — in the Moosewala murder case along with his two aides Kapil Pandit and Rajinder Joker from the Indo-Nepal border in West Bengal when they were attempting to escape to Nepal.