The Navi Mumbai police infiltrated the social media groups, including WhatsApp, of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang before arresting four of its members for allegedly plotting to attack actor Salman Khan, an official said on Saturday.

The action comes months after the police made arrests in connection with a firing outside the actor’s Bandra home in Mumbai.

Vivek Pansare, Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone II (Panvel), told the media that Panvel police station senior inspector Nitin Thackeray got inputs in September-October last year about a conspiracy to harm the actor.

A few Navi Mumbai police officers and informers then infiltrated WhatsApp and other social media groups of the Bishnoi gang and began tracking the chatter on those platforms, he said.

The police said they learnt that the four arrested gang members had recced Salman’s farmhouse in Panvel, the area around his home at Bandra in Mumbai and places he visited for film shooting.

There were even attempts to get weapons from abroad, he said.

After gathering inputs, cops in April registered a case against 17 persons, including Lawrence Bishnoi and his younger brother Anmol Bishnoi, police said.

Accused Dhananjay Tapesingh, alias Ajay Kashyap (28) was arrested from Panvel on April 28. The same day, Gaurav Bhatia, alias Sandeep Bishnoi, was taken into custody from Gujarat, the official said.

While the third person Vaspi Khan, alias Waseem Chikna, was picked from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Rizwan Khan, alias Javed Khan, was arrested from Bangalore, he said.

They have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 120-B (Conspiracy) and 506 (criminal intimidation), the official said.

Lawrence Bishnoi is currently lodged in the Sabarmati central prison in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, while Anmol Bishnoi is believed to be in the US or Canada.

On April 14, two bike-borne men fired multiple rounds outside Khan’s home – Galaxy Apartments – in Mumbai’s Bandra. The shooters, Vicky Gupta and Sagar Pal, were arrested from Gujarat.

Sonu Bishnoi and Anuj Thapan, who allegedly delivered weapons to the shooters, were nabbed later from Punjab. Thapan allegedly hanged himself in a police lock-up here on May 1. Mumbai police subsequently made more arrests in the case.

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