Manisha Koirala escapes kidnapping - 4 killed!Hmmm!

The four killed men were linked to the notorious Abu Salem, who is believed to operate an underworld network in India from a base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the police said, adding that the gang has been accused in the past of trying to extort money from a number of Bollywood film stars and producers.

Koirala, whose life is frequently fodder for celebrity magazines, has acted in hits like "1942: A Love Story" and "Bombay".

http://www.planetbollywood.com/News/s071702-135746.html
:vsneaky:

Apparently the target was a young director and filmmaker father.....could that be Johar.jr. and Sr. ?

Read the entire article....since it is on a subscription site i paste the entire contents below....

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Abu Salem’s target was young, celebrated director, not Koirala
SHEELA RAVAL
Mumbai, July 18, 16:35



The actual target of the four hit men of the Abu Salem gang - killed by the Mumbai police crime branch on Tuesday - was a young, flamboyant and celebrated film director, and not Manisha Koirala as was reported earlier.

Koirala, who is now shooting in London, told TheNewspaperToday, "I’m getting edgy each time I read about my alleged kidnap plan. But I am cautious after the real shooting incidence in 1998."

Last month, Koirala was shocked to see 20 armed policemen waiting to receive her at Chennai airport where she had gone for a shoot with Rajnikanth. The Chennai police claimed to have a tip-off that the Rajan gang was planning to kidnap Koirala. Interestingly, this was the third attempt by different gangs to kidnap her in two years.

According to Mumbai police, among the four killed on Tuesday were two gangsters who had made the first attempt to kidnap Koirala -- Salem’s shooter Jaspal Singh, alias Joseph, and his associate Suresh Arora. Mumbai police caught them in two murder and robbery cases and they convicted for six months. They were out on bail early this year.

In fact, the Crime Branch had been tracking the killers last week on a tip-off that they were planning to assassinate a young film director and his filmmaker father. But the real chase began on Tuesday morning, when the killers began the final chase in a blue Maruti Van.

The crackdown team promptly reported the gangsters’ suspicious movements to the Crime Branch headquarters and received an order to nab them before they do anything.

At about 8 pm, the Crime Branch team comprising five officers and 10 assistants - armed with handguns and grenades - trapped the gang at Lokhandwala complex in western Mumbai. As soon as the Van stopped and a team of policemen moved towards the vehicle, the killers realised that they were trapped and opened fire.

A senior crime branch officer who chalked out the operation said, "The Salem faction has become quite desperate to establish their supremacy in extortion, and their main target is the film industry." The security branch of Mumbai police has provided armed protection to 18 prominent film personalities since during the last two years, over 60 extortion and threat calls have been reported to police by film personalities.

Even after the killing of T-Series chief Gulshan Kumar and the following storm in the media, Salem’s extortion racket has been quite active. The list of targets includes director Rajiv Rai, producers Rakesh Roshan, Manmohan Shetty and Jammu Sugandh and actors Ashutosh Gowarikar and Aamir Khan.

The reasons for Abu Salem’s desperate bid to maintain his leadership in extortion are manifold. First, extortion is one of his main sources of income. Second, too many gangs have entered Salem’s niche area. Third, the flow of funds is slowly drying up in Bollywood since it was a bad year for business. The last hits that Bollywood had seen during the year were Lagaan and Gadar. In fact, Taran Aadarsh, editor of Trade Guide, described it as the worst year in last 25 years

Meanwhile, Salem was spotted in New York recently. The US government is said to have informed the Interpol that Salem was spotted and he was under surveillance. But Salem managed to give a slip again, although he is surely facing his toughest time ever.

I wish the Indian government would set up a special ops branch ( like the mossad ) to get rid of scum like this. There is no way the terrorist countries of the gulf will ever extradite these guys. How come everyone knows who these guys are, where they live and what they do and the govt cannot do anything? And how come the US government arrests film actors at airports but let these guys go scot free?