Film producer tries to fix Salman Khan in fake case

A 47-year-old film producer has been arrested for allegedly trying to implicate Bollywood actor Salman Khan and his business manager Reshma Shetty in a fake shootout case in central Delhi. His wife and daughter were earlier booked for creating a ruckus outside the film star’s house in Mumbai in August, the police said on Saturday.

Hardev Singh, a resident of Rajouri Garden, runs a film production house in Mumbai and has a business of tyres in the capital. According to police, he hatched a conspiracy with his 44-year-old cousin Devender Singh hoping that they could extort money from Salman and put pressure on him to do an item song in his film.

On September 16, the police control room at Deshbandhu Gupta Road police station received a call regarding an incident of firing.

“On the spot, Hardev claimed that his car was waylaid by two motorcycle borne assailants who opened fire at him,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Alok Kumar.

Hardev escaped unhurt, and being a film producer, accused Salman and Reshma for the attack over a dispute. Accordingly, a case of attempt to murder under the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act was registered with Deshbandhu Gupta Road police station.

During investigation, it was suspected that the incident could have been plotted by Hardev due to his inconsistent statements. “It also came to notice that Hardev was the husband of Jasmeet Kaur Sethi, who recently created ruckus outside Salman’s house in Mumbai,” Kumar added.

Probe revealed that the family runs a film production unit in Mumbai and had approached Salman’s business manager in a bid to hire him for an item song in a film. Jasmeet and her daughter Amita Sethi then attempted to directly approach Salman after Reshma alleged demanded a huge sum for the job.

The mother-daughter duo kicked up a storm in front of Salman’s Bandra house on August 30 after accusing him of not giving them time to discuss the film’s script.

The police then analysed the call data records of Hardev, and found that he was continuously in contact with his cousin Devender. On suspicion, cop detained Devender and interrogated him at length.

“Hardev told him that he had suffered loss and the family had been dragged in criminal cases due to his wife and daughter’s actions outside Salman’s house,” Kumar said. On this, Hardev along with Devender had hatched a conspiracy to frame Salman and Reshma in a fake case in Delhi.

Devender further called his friend Gurjinder, who agreed to take part in the conspiracy.
“Devender was arrested, while Hardev was also nabbed on the basis of Devender’s statement,” Kumar added.

During interrogation, Hardev confessed his involvement in the commission of crime. On verification, it was revealed that Devender and Gurjinder have criminal history. Devender was involved in a rape case, which is in the records of Deshbandhu Gupta Road police station, while Gurjinder was involved in four cases of attempt to murder, Arms Act and kidnapping of Adarsh Nagar, Jahangirpuri and Mahendra Park police stations.