Special Correspondent | Mumbai
A shocking allegation has emerged from Maharashtra politics, as senior leader Suresh Dhas has claimed that the Bishnoi gang conspired to kill him, much like their ongoing vendetta against Bollywood actor Salman Khan over the blackbuck hunting case.
Dhas stated, “I was deliberately dragged into the case involving Satish Bhosale, also known as Khokya, who is accused of hunting over 200 deer. Bishnoi community members were flown into Mumbai with the intent to frame me. They were misled into believing that Khokya used to supply me blackbuck meat.”
Dhas strongly denied the allegations, saying, “I have never touched venison in my life. I have lived a simple life as a Warkari for 16 years. I love animals and birds. I don’t know what was found in his house, maybe meat of wild animals. But what else would you find in a hunter’s house—certainly not religious scriptures.”
Khokya, a close aide of Dhas, was reportedly living on forest department land and had very little property in his name. Forest officials found blackbuck meat in his home, and it was alleged that he used to send boxes of this meat to Dhas’s residence.
The Bishnoi community, native to Rajasthan, considers blackbucks sacred and worships them as divine beings. In fact, Bishnoi women are known to breastfeed orphaned fawns to keep them alive. The community was also behind the legal case filed against Salman Khan in 1998 for allegedly hunting blackbucks, a case that eventually led to a 5-year jail sentence for the actor.
Following the same sentiment, Dhas believes that the Bishnoi gang, particularly those associated with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, planned to assassinate him as an act of revenge.
He concluded, “Why should I suffer such a fate? I’ve lived an honest life, far removed from such crimes. Yet they tried to portray me as part of this entire blackbuck poaching nexus.”
