Threat calls to Gadkari's office: Nagpur police seize mobile phones, sim cards from Karnataka jail
Nagpur, March 24: The Nagpur police have recovered two mobile phones and as many sim cards from a jail in Karnataka's Belagavi, days after a person made threat calls to Union minister Nitin Gadkari's office here identifying himself as a jail inmate, an official said on Friday.
On March 21, three calls were made to the BJP leader's public relations office in Nagpur. The caller, who identified himself as one Jayesh Pujari, alias Jayesh Kantha, demanded Rs 10 crore and threatened to harm the minister if the money was not paid.
As part of their investigation, the local police with the help of their Belagavi counterparts searched the premises of Hindalga Central Jail in the Karnataka city where a man named Jayesh Pujari is serving a life sentence, said Nagpur police chief Amitesh Kumar.
During the search, two mobile phones and two sim cards were recovered from the jail premises, he said.
The official said they will seek Pujari's remand for his custodial interrogation as his name had also been used to make similar calls to the minister's office demanding Rs 100 crore in January.
The Nagpur police had then questioned Pujari but he had denied having any role in the calls, said an official had said then.
In the latest set of calls, the caller demanded that the amount of Rs 10 crore be paid through UPI (Unified Payments Interface) to one Razia, who is an event manager from Mangalore and is believed to be the girlfriend of an inmate at the Belagavi jail, said Kumar.
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Siddaramaiah and I have come to understanding, we will abide by it: Shivakumar
Karwar (Karnataka) (PTI): Not willing to make any direct statement on whether there will be a chief minister change in the state, Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar on Friday said that he and CM Siddaramaiah have come to an agreement with the involvement of the Congress high command, and both of them will abide by it.
Stating that Siddaramaiah is CM as per the high command's decision, he clarified that he has never made any comments on the former's tenure.
Siddaramaiah, earlier in the day, had affirmed that he would remain in office for his full five-year term, expressing confidence in the Congress high command's support.
During a discussion in the Assembly on the issues pertaining to North Karnataka's development, Siddaramaiah also said he never mentioned that he was the chief minister for only two-and-a-half years.
"I had never said, he (Siddaramaiah) will not be there (as CM) for five years. I have never said that the high command is not with him. As the high command is with him, he is chief minister today," Shivakumar told reporters here.
Noting that Siddaramaiah is in the post of CM as per the decision of the party, he said, "Both of us have come to an agreement, the high command has got us to an understanding, as per that both of us have discussed and have said several times that we will abide by it and go ahead."
Shivakumar, however, chose not to answer a question, whether there will be a change in the chief minister post or not.
To a question on talks about CM change, he said, "It is you (media) who is talking about it, there is no discussion among us. We will abide by what the party says."
The Deputy CM was on a visit to various temples in the Uttara Kannada district on Friday.
To a question linking his visit to the goddess Jagadeeshwari temple in Uttara Kannada district's Ankola, to his chief ministerial ambitions, Shivakumar said, "I don't want to talk about it, it is between me and the mother goddess. It is between the devotee and the deity. What I have prayed to the goddess and what she told me is between us."
He said, five years ago he had come to the temple regarding some issue concerning his family and his wish was fulfilled. "So I'm visiting the temple as a mark of gratitude and to seek blessings for me, the state and the people who believe in me. I'm going back happily."
