New Delhi:

The gym owner who was shot dead in South Delhi’s upscale Greater Kailash area on Thursday night had come in the crosshairs of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang because he had asked his business partner not to pay Rs 5 crore that the outfit had tried to extort from him, sources have told NDTV. 

Nadir Shah, who is of Afghan origin, was allegedly also friends with two South Delhi gangsters. This friendship was used by the Bishnoi gang to tap the enemies of the gangsters, who, in turn, roped in people who had been threatened by Shah earlier, building a complex web before finally carrying out the murder. 

Shah was shot dead on a busy road in Greater Kailash-1. A video of the shooting showed him standing and talking to one of his associates near some parked cars when a man in a checked shirt walked up to them and began firing. Shah’s associate managed to duck but the gym owner was shot six to eight times and was declared dead at a hospital.

While the shooter is on the run, four people have been arrested so far and their interrogation and the police’s investigation have revealed that Shah was a business partner of a man called Kunal Chhabra, who runs several illegal call centres in Delhi. Some time ago, members of Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang had tried to extort Rs 5 crore from Chhabra, but Shah had told him not to pay, saying he would protect him because he had friends in high places. 

Sources said this made Shah a target for the Bishnoi gang and he also spoke to Lawrence Bishnoi to negotiate a settlement, but was turned down. Around this time, Bishnoi was taken into police custody and allegedly tortured and he held Shah responsible for that. He allegedly declared in front of police officials that he would now take not five but Rs 10 crore from Shah and Chhabra. 

Spinning The Web

Shah was friends with South Delhi gangsters Ravi Gangwal and Rohit Chaudhary, who were enemies of Hashim Baba, a North East Delhi gangster. Sources said Rohit Godara, a key member of the Bishnoi gang – who has claimed responsibility for Shah’s murder – used this enmity to rope in Hashim Baba in his plan to kill Shah. 

Hashim Baba brought in Randeep, a gangster from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, who is currently in the US. Randeep allegedly brought in a few men from Azamgarh to kill Shah. 

Widening the conspiracy, Hashim Baba, who is lodged in Tihar Jail, also roped in his jailmate Sameer Baba, a gangster who was once threatened by Shah. 

The shooting was finally carried out by Hashim Baba and Randeep’s shooters and of the four men who have been arrested by the police so far, three – Nilesh Tiwari, Vishal Verma and Akash Yadav – are from Azamgarh, while Naveen Baliyan is from Sonipat in Haryana. 

Shah’s business partner, Chhabra, is in Dubai and has a non-bailable warrant against him in Delhi. Shah also owned a business in Dubai and had several criminal cases against him.

Mumbai:

 The Mumbai crime branch has registered a case against gangster Rohit Godara in connection with the firing at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s residence last month.

The Mumbai Crime Branch has also named gangster Godara as an accused in the case.

The firing incident took place on April 14 outside Salman Khan’s residence at Galaxy Apartments in the Bandra area of Mumbai. The subsequent arrests revealed connections to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, leading the Mumbai Police to invoke the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against all involved in the shooting.

“Mumbai Crime Branch has so far arrested six accused in the Salman Khan firing case and four accused are on run and the search is on,” it said.

The sixth accused, identified as Harpal Singh (37), was arrested from Haryana’s Fatehabad on Monday evening. He will be presented in the MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court of Mumbai.

As per the police officials, Harpal Singh’s information surfaced during the interrogation of another accused Mohammed Rafique Choudhary. He had financed Choudhary to conduct a recce around Salman’s residence.

Earlier, police said that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother, Anmol Vishnoi, played a key role in motivating the shooters. After receiving weapons delivery in Panvel on March 15, 2024, Anmol provided the shooters with the target’s information, instructing them to carry out the firing at the actor’s residence.

The planned firing incident was executed as per instructions, during which the shooters received a total of Rs 3 lakh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)