Gangster who made threat calls to Gadkari office facing death sentence

Nagpur: The gangster lodged in Karnataka jail, who on Saturday made three threatening calls to the public relations office of Union minister Nitin Gadkari, is a convict facing the death sentence. Claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, Jayesh alias Jayesh Kantha had demanded Rs100 crore.
In 2016, the court had awarded the death sentence to Jayesh for murder and robbery. Jayesh, who converted after marrying a Muslim woman, has earlier threatened the Belagavi IG in Karnataka. Nagpur police have already seized a diary from Jayesh which has names of top politicians and VVIPs. It’s learnt Jayesh has 10-12 serious offences against him. He is originally from Kerala.
Though Nagpur police have already reached and searched the cell in which Jayesh is lodged in Karnataka jail, the cellphone used to make the calls is yet to be traced. Jayesh, convicted for a murder in 2008, was arrested four years later. He has thrice escaped from jail, including twice between 2016 and 2018.
A team of Nagpur city police, which is now interrogating Jayesh, plans to apply for the production warrant to take him in custody. “We will have to seek permission from the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka before bringing the accused to Nagpur from Karnataka jail,” said CP Amitesh Kumar. After calling Gadkari’s office, Jayesh had shared his own number and asked for Rs100 crore to be transferred through a mobile phone app, Kumar added.
The CP seemed keen on getting Jayesh psychologically scrutinized before bringing him to Nagpur under unprecedented protection. “We are probing all angles regarding Jayesh, his motive behind making the call, and from where he managed to procure the landline number of the minister’s office,” said Kumar.