Now, Lakdawala threatens Akshay

After music director and singer Himesh Reshammiya, underworld don Ejaz Lakdawala has now trained his guns on actor Akshay Kumar. Lakdawala allegedly asked the actor to cough up Rs 5 crore or face the consequences, a Crime Branch (CB) official told

HT

on condition of anonymity.

The don has threatened director Rajkumar Santoshi and producer Firoze Nadiadwala several times in the recent past, the officer said.

Despite repeated attempts by

HT

, Kumar could not be contacted.

Four Lakdawala shooters held by the Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday had reportedly revealed the don's plans to bump off Reshammiya. "We are procuring transfer warrants to get the four men in our custody. We will interrogate them to find out more about their extortion activities in Mumbai," said CB chief Joint Commissioner of police Rakesh Maria.

Lakdawala's dogged ambition to replace jailed gangster Abu Salem — who once had Bollywood at his mercy — is well known in city police circles.

Bollywood is a lucrative target for extortionists in the city's underworld and Salem's extradition to India from Portugal in 2005 created a vacuum. "Lakdawala is competing with dons Ravi Pujari and Hemant Pujari to establish control over Bollywood," said the CB officer.

Lakdawala was part of a hit-squad formed by don Chhota Rajan in 1996 when Rajan was locked in a desperte duel with rival don Dawood.