Union Minister and BJP leader Nitin Gadkari’s Nagpur home and office received three threat calls against him, demanding Rs 10 Crore. The calls said Gadkari could be “harmed" if they did not receive the asked amount. According to police, the caller identified himself as one Jayesh Pujari, alias Jayesh Kantha.
Security was beefed up at Gadkari’s residence and office after Gadkari’s staff was alerted. The city police have started an investigation.
Notably, Jayesh Pujari was the same person whose name had been used to make similar calls to Gadkari’s office in January, a PTI report said. Rahul Madane, deputy commissioner of police (zone II), said three calls, two in the morning and one around 12 noon, were made to Gadkari’s public relations office, opposite Orange City Hospital in Nagpur.
On January 14, a man identifying himself as Pujari had made threat calls to Gadkari’s public relations office, demanding Rs 100 crore. The caller claimed that he was a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.
According to reports, Jayesh Pujari is currently lodged in the Hindalga jail in Karnataka’s Belagavi after being sentenced to death in a murder case. He had earlier denied his involvement in the calls made in January.
Earlier, the cyber cell of Napur Police had registered a case against a man for allegedly posting offensive comments on social media which had references to Gadkari. The accused, Dattatray Joshi, made certain references to Gadkari in the posts circulated on WhatsApp, police said.
A representative of the senior BJP leader’s office in Nagpur later filed a complaint with the police and demanded strict action against the person who made the posts viral.
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