Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS): The Navi Mumbai has arrested a key operative of the jailed mafiosi Lawrence Bishnoi, for an alleged Rs 25 lakhs contract to eliminate Bollywood mega-star Salman Khan, from Panipat in Haryana, officials said here on Thursday.

He is identified as Sukhbir Balbir Singh alias Sukha who was nabbed by a team of Panvel Police from Haryana yesterday, for the contract hit on Khan plotted between August 2023 and April 2024.

Sukha was in regular contact with one Dogar, a suspected Pakistani-based handler and was planning to acquire sophisticated weapons for the ’supari’ killing.

Besides the conspiracy to bump off Khan, Sukha will be investigated for the sensational killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader and businessman Baba Ziauddin Siddique – a close friend of Khan - in Bandra East on Oct. 12.

According to the investigators, more than five dozen men were keeping tabs on Khan’s routine at his home in Bandra West, the Goregaon Film City (both in Mumbai) and the sprawling Arpita Farms in Panvel (Raigad).

Last April at the height of the Lok Sabha elections, the Bishnoi gangsters had created a sensation by firing several rounds at the actor’s first-floor flat in Galaxy Apartments, after which the Navi Mumbai Police lodged a case on April 24.

The police had identified at least 18 persons, including Bishnoi, his brother Anmol, Canada-based Goldie Brar and others as accused of the plot to kill Khan in connivance with others and had arrested five members of the dreaded gang.

This includes Dhananjay alias Ajay Kashyap, Deepak Hava Singh alias John, Rizwan Khan alias Javed, Gaurav Bhatia and Wasim Khan alias Chikna.

Khan and his father, veteran screenplay writer Salim Khan have received multiple threats from the Bishnoi gang in the past couple of years and Mumbai Police have beefed up security at their home and office.