Charged Palash Bose (with orange mask) after his arrest
MUMBAI: Palash Bose, a Kolkata resident arrested for the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) for making threatening phone calls to Shiv Sena’s deputy Sanjay raut, was the same defendant who had come to the residences of Prime Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Head of NCP Sharad Pawar and the state Interior Minister, Anil Deshmukh, and threatened them. All threat calls were made using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. A couple of text messages sent by him to Raut, using a Dubai SIM card, led Bose to the police network.
“Our team arrested Bose and they are questioning him,” said Deven Bharti, ATS state chief. Raut had been receiving threats to his life through international phone calls from a person claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. “Following Raut’s complaint, a case was registered at the ATS police station under the sections of the IPC and the Criminal Law Amendment Act,” said an official.
Police Inspector Daya Naik, who led the investigation, said Bose (49) will be presented to a Mumbai court on Sunday for pretrial detention. Naik’s team recovered two cell phones, an Indian Sim, three international SIM cards, and Bose’s passport. The mobile phone would be sent for cyber analysis to the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory.
Bachelor of Science, Bose (49) worked as a gymnastics instructor in Kolkata. He told the ATS that he had collected information on Maharashtra politicians through Google and some websites. “I had Googled ‘Matoshree’, Thackeray’s private residence in Bandra, several times. He told us that he worked in Dubai between 1999 and 2018 as a supervisor at a club. This period witnessed various underworld operations in India and abroad. We are exploring all the possibilities and questioning it, ”said an official. Bose had made several calls to politicians between September 2-6. Raut was the only one to answer a call made on September 6.
ATS found several SMS sent by the defendant, using a Dubai mobile number, to Raut. The ATS received assistance from the Internet Service Provider in Dubai to locate the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the SIM. The IP address was found to be in use in Kolkata. The ATS, with the help of the Kolkata police, arrested Bose at his home in Tollygunge in southern Kolkata. “Bose has admitted to committing such a crime,” said an officer.
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