Oficials said they have traced the original message to Jharkhand.
The man behind the latest threat to actor Salman Khan, in which Rs 5 crore was demanded to end the actor's "enmity" with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has now sent another message saying he had made a mistake.
The Mumbai Traffic Police had received a WhatsApp message on October 18, less than a week after former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique was shot dead in Bandra. The person who sent the message said if Salman Khan did not pay Rs 5 crore to end his enmity with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, believed to be behind Siddique's murder, he would also meet the same fate as the politician.
"Don't take this lightly. If Salman Khan wants to stay alive and end the enmity with Lawrence Bishnoi, he must pay Rs 5 crore. If the money is not given, his condition will be worse than Baba Siddique's," the threat message said.
Security around Mr Khan's residence in Bandra and his farmhouse in Panvel near Mumbai, which had already been tightened after Siddique's death, was beefed up further after the threat.
On Monday, officials from the Mumbai Traffic Police said they had received another message from the same number in which the person apologised and said he had made a mistake by sending the earlier threatening message.
The officials said they have traced the original message to Jharkhand and a police team from Mumbai is in the state to find the man behind it.
Earlier Threat
On October 13, a day after Siddique's murder, a person suspected to be from the Bishnoi gang had claimed responsibility. The post from the handle of one Shubuu Lonkar, believed to be Bishnoi gang associate Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, claimed that Siddique had been killed because he was linked to India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was close to Salman Khan and because of the death of Anuj Thapan, one of the arrested suspects in the shooting outside Mr Khan's house, in police custody.
"We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order ('hisaab-kitaab kar lena')," Lonkar wrote in Hindi in the Facebook post.
Siddique was killed on October 12 by three shooters outside the office of his son and MLA Zeeshan Siddique in Bandra East. Two of the shooters had been arrested soon after the murder and the police are looking for the third shooter as well as their alleged handler.