Mumbai, August 25: Mumbai police have revealed a fake extortion plot involving Bollywood actor Salman Khan. The scheme allegedly involved threats from an organized crime gang, but investigators found that the accused fabricated the entire story.
According to police, the suspect, Asif Mohammad Muslim Raja, 25, created a false narrative using a fake identity to initiate WhatsApp chats. He aimed to make it appear that a criminal gang was plotting to harm Khan.
The incident took place in the Bandra area of Mumbai. Asif, originally from Siwan district in Bihar, was residing in Bandra at the time. A case has been registered at the Bandra police station.
Asif claimed that unknown individuals had given him money and a mobile phone. He alleged that these individuals were conspiring to threaten and harm Salman Khan. Due to the seriousness of the claims, police launched an investigation.
As the investigation progressed, police conducted a technical examination of Asif’s mobile phone. They discovered inconsistencies in the WhatsApp chats that raised suspicions about his story. The writing style and choice of words in the messages were strikingly similar, suggesting that the chats were created by Asif himself.
Following this, police interrogated Asif about the locations where he claimed to have met these unknown individuals. They reviewed CCTV footage from those areas but found no evidence of such meetings, revealing contradictions in his account.
During further questioning, Asif reportedly admitted that he fabricated the entire story to intimidate Salman Khan and extort money from him. Police assert that he used electronic means to create a false identity and generated fake WhatsApp chats using different numbers to lend credibility to his claims.
The investigation also uncovered that Asif had hidden the mobile phone used to create the chats, along with his old phone, at a beach in Bandra. Police later recovered both devices based on his directions. During the seizure process, screenshots of the alleged fake WhatsApp chats were also confiscated in the presence of witnesses.
Additionally, police traced around ₹1.30 lakh that Asif had allegedly received via PhonePe from Siwan, which he later converted into cash through a money transfer agent in Bandra.
Charges have been filed against Asif under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act.
Currently, police are continuing their investigation, trying to determine whether Asif acted alone or if others were involved in this alleged fake threat and extortion scheme.
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