Maharashtra cops raid Karnataka's Hindalga jail, find notebook with suspect

BELAGAVI: Maharashtra police conducted a raid on Hindalga central prison on Saturday evening in connection with some threat calls made to the public relations office of Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister for road transport and highways.
The investigation continued on Sunday too.
According to jail sources, Maharashtra police interrogated Jayesh Pujari from Mangaluru, accused in a murder case, and searched for his cell phone. His cell phone was not found, but police found a diary from him. No illegal materials were found in the jail. Sources said Jayesh has threatened many prominent personalities in the past from jail, including ADGP Alok Kumar.
Jayesh was arrested in a murder case in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2018 by the court. He tried to escape from jail numerous times without success. According to jail sources, the accused has contacts in the underworld, even in Maharashtra. He even intimidates and tortures jail officers. “In order to torture us, he sometimes makes threat calls to prominent personalities through his associates from the jail premises,” an officer said .
Claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, someone had allegedly called Gadkari’s office three times on Saturday noon.
Speaking in Hindi, the caller demanded Rs 100 crore as ransom and threatened to blow up the office if the amount was not paid. Minister Gadkari was not in the office when these calls were made.
Speaking to the TOI, jail superintendent Krishna Kumar said: “We have housed him (Jayesh Pujari) in a separate barrack due to such activities and kept a special eye on him. In jail, he shouts and threatens every officer, including me. He tortures everybody in jail. Jammers are being installed on the jail grounds to shut down all cell phone frequencies. Once that happens, similar issues won't recur," he said.
This is not the first time threatening calls were made from Hindalaga jail.
In 2013, a Mumbai-based criminal Yusuf Bachkhana, who was in jail, instructed his followers to shoot a builder in Mumbai.
After that case, jail authorities took numerous measures to prevent such activities from happening inside the jail.