Karnataka deploys security at RSS offices as man held for threatening to 'blow them up'

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday, June 7, said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) offices in the state will be provided with adequate security, following threats to cause destruction to them. He referred to the arrest of a man in neighbouring Tamil Nadu for circulating a message on WhatsApp threatening to destroy RSS offices, including four in Karnataka. "In the wake of messages threatening to destroy RSS offices in the state, all RSS offices will be provided with adequate security," Jnanendra said.

Noting that the man had sent the message to a person in Uttar Pradesh holding out the threat to two RSS offices in UP and four in Karnataka, he said, "A case has been registered in this regard, and the person who had sent the WhatsApp message has been identified as Senthil and has been arrested in Tamil Nadu." However, the man held by the Tamil Nadu police has been identified as Raj Mohammed. "Stringent legal action will be taken against miscreants making such threat calls or sending such messages," the Home Minister was quoted by his office in a statement.

The announcement comes after the Tamil Nadu police on Tuesday arrested Raj Mohammed from Pudukkottai for circulating messages that he would blow up RSS offices. Tamil Nadu police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) acted on a tip-off from Uttar Pradesh police and arrested Raj Mohammed, who was in Pudukottai. According to the police, the man had threatened to blow up RSS offices in Lucknow, Unnao, and other places in Uttar Pradesh and had circulated messages on WhatsApp. 

Tracing his number, police zeroed in on him when he was at Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu. Uttar Pradesh police had intimated the Tamil Nadu ATS who nabbed him. An FIR was registered against Raj Mohammed in Madiyaon police station in Lucknow, according to S Chinnappa, DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) North Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He said that a bomb threat was received at the RSS offices in Lucknow and Unnao and hence an FIR (First Information Report) was registered against Raj Mohammed. Tamil Nadu police said that the accused will be handed over to the Uttar Pradesh police after he will be produced before a magistrate court in Pudukottai.