Death threat to Shah Rukh Khan: Accused lawyer remanded in police custody till November 18

Mumbai: A court here on Thursday remanded a lawyer from Chhattisgarh, arrested over allegations of threatening to kill Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in police custody till November 18.

The Mumbai police arrested the accused lawyer, Faizan Khan, from Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur on Tuesday.

They brought him here after securing his transit remand from a Chhattisgarh court.

On Thursday, the police produced the accused before a court in Bandra here and sought his remand for seven days for a probe into the matter.

The accused's lawyers Amit Mishra and Sunil Mishra submitted that Faizan Khan's phone was stolen before the alleged incident.

They argued that the threat call made from his communication device was a conspiracy against him as he had earlier complained to the Mumbai police against Shah Rukh Khan over a dialogue in his movie 'Anjaam' (1994) referring to deer hunting.

After hearing both the sides, the court remanded the accused in police custody till November 18.

The Bandra police station received a call on November 5 with a person on the other side threatening to kill Shah Rukh Khan and demanding Rs 50 lakh. The actor's home is located in Bandra.

Subsequently, a case was lodged against the then unidentified caller under sections 308(4) (extortion involving threats of death or serious injury) and 351(3)(4) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The caller was later identified as Faizan Khan and traced to Raipur.

Before his arrest, Faizan Khan had told reporters that his phone was stolen on November 2 and he lodged a complaint in that connection.

On his objection over a scene in Shah Rukh Khan's movie, he had said, "I hail from Rajasthan. The Bishnoi community (whose members mainly reside in Rajasthan) is my friend. It is in their religion to protect deer. So, if a Muslim says something like this about deer, it is condemnable. Therefore, I raised an objection."

The threat to the 59-year-old superstar follows a series of such phone calls targeting fellow actor Salman Khan, allegedly from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.