In his book, Let Me Say It Now, former Bombay police chief Rakesh Maria has said that the crime branch had prior information about gangster Abu Salem’s specific plan to kill music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997. Armed with this knowledge, the crime branch gave Gulshan Kumar protection but after months, both, the protectors and the protectee, relaxed. The book blames their sloth and complacency for Gulshan Kumar’s murder.
Maria was posted in the director general’s office when he got a call from an informant on the night of April 22, 1997, indicating a plot by Abu Salem to kill Gulshan Kumar. The informant added that the gangster had finalised his plan with his shooters and was to have Kumar killed while he was on his way to the Lord Shiva Temple he visited every day. Maria recalls in the book that he called Mahesh Bhatt who confirmed with Gulshan Kumar if he indeed visited the temple daily. Bhatt conveyed the information to Gulshan Kumar. Maria then told Mahesh Bhatt that he would inform the crime branch and that Gulshan Kumar should not step out of his home before he got protection. The crime branch extended protection to the music magnate.
Gulshan Kumar was shot dead on 12th August, 1997, while he was coming out of the Shiva temple. Maria says that he learnt that the protection was withdrawn after the Uttar Pradesh police commandos provided protection to Gulshan Kumar’s cassette factory in NOIDA.