Mumbai: A Kolkata resident, who was arrested on Friday for allegedly threatening Shiv Sena deputy Sanjay Raut, had also made similar calls at the residences of Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the state’s Interior Minister Anil Deshmukh, and CPN chief Sharad Pawar of the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) officials said on Saturday.
According to the PTI news agency, the defendant, Palash Bose, had projected himself as a member of Dawood Ibrahim’s gang while allegedly making these phone calls earlier this month, ATS officials said.
According to ATS, Bose (49) had lived in Dubai for more than 15 years and returned to Kolkata a few years ago.
“He made these calls using a SIM card he had bought in Dubai,” ATS officials said, adding that Bose also revealed that it had used international SIM cards to make these calls.
Police are now trying to find out if Bose has any connection to D-Company in Dubai.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered under Sections 505 (Statements Leading to Public Damage), 506 (Punishment for Criminal Intimidation) and 507 (Criminal Intimidation by Anonymous Communication) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) concerning the complaint of Raut, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Anti-Terrorist Squad, Vikram Deshmane.
The police also added section 7 to the Penal Law Amendment Act of 1932, he said.
“During the investigation, ATS Mumbai received information from a reliable source that the accused is hiding in Kolkata, after which he was picked up in that city by a team led by Police Inspector Daya Nayak,” he said.
Police recovered two mobile phones, four SIM cards, three international and one domestic, from the defendants, DCP said.
Bose’s motive behind making these threat calls is under investigation, the DCP said.
He said that Bose, a science graduate, had obtained phone numbers of politicians he had targeted from various websites.
Mumbai police received the defendants’ pretrial detention until September 14.
On Sunday, the police had tightened security in front of Thackeray’s residence, ‘Matoshree’ in Bandra, after an unidentified person, claiming to be the fugitive assistant from the underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim, called the bungalow’s landline number. .
The state’s Interior Minister, Anil Deshmukh, had received threats on more than one occasion for his stance on the controversy involving actress Kangana Ranaut.
Deshmukh had received the calls from Himachal Pradesh and another location from different numbers on Tuesday and around 6 a.m. Wednesday, sources close to him said, adding that the callers asked the minister not to get involved in the controversy.
Also earlier, an anonymous person called Deshmukh’s office in Nagpur, threatening him and Sharad Pawar, a minister said.
Kolkata police had said that Bose claimed to be a fan of Ranaut.
Shiv Sena and the actress are engaged in a war of words after the latter recently compared Mumbai to PoK and also said she feared the Mumbai police more than the movie mafia.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which is governed by Shiv Sena, on Wednesday shot down some illegal alterations made to Ranaut’s bungalow in the Bandra suburbs.
The Bombay High Court subsequently granted a stay.
(With contributions from the Agency)
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