Mumbai, June 12: One of Abu Salem’s lawyers today alleged receiving a death threat in what seemed a sequence in the continuing feud between gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan.

Ashok Sarogi said his wife Sarla had received a call from a man who said the lawyer would be shot if he continued to defend Salem, a former associate of Dawood.

The man had claimed to be Ravi Pujari, the scar-faced Rajan henchman who left his mentor after Dawood organised an attack on Rajan in Bangkok seven years ago.

“The call came around 11.45 am,” Sarogi said. “My wife tells me the caller did not abuse her. But he said since I represent Salem, a Muslim, who was also part of the Dawood-engineered Bombay blasts of 1993, I should die.”

“Unhe pyar se samjhaya bahut, but baat nahin maney (we tried to persuade your husband but he wouldn’t listen),” the caller allegedly said.

The lawyer, who had received a similar threat three months ago, said he had not filed a police complaint but would do that soon.

Rajan used to be a key Dawood aide but left him and started his own gang after the 1993 blasts.

“The caller told my wife that it was a shame that being a Hindu, I was fighting for Salem, a traitor. I have also found out that the call was made from another country,” Sarogi said.

Pujari, believed to be in Australia, is of average height and build and speaks English, Hindi and Kannada.

The school dropout had started off as a petty criminal in Andheri in suburban Mumbai. His rise began after he killed a local rival, Bala Zalte. He joined Rajan’s gang and became one of the don’s proteges.

He moved to Dubai in the late 1990s and began extorting money from Mumbai’s builders and hoteliers from there.

A year ago, Pujari is alleged to have threatened Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt over the phone for “supporting the causes of the minorities”. Later, one of his hitmen went to Bhatt’s office and fired shots, but he wasn’t there.

Pujari is also believed to have tried to extort Rs 50 crore out of actress Karisma Kapoor’s husband Sanjay Kapur.

The gangster had owned up to the unsuccessful attempt on the life of leading criminal lawyer Majeed Memon in Mumbai.

He said he had targeted Memon because of his alleged links with Dawood and his associate Chhota Shakeel.