NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal booked for issuing death threats to businessman

The crime branch has registered a case against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal and two others for allegedly threatening to kill a businessman-cum-social activist from Chembur

The crime branch has registered a case against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal and two others for allegedly threatening to kill a businessman-cum-social activist from Chembur. Bhujbal, however, denied the charges.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal (HT Archive)

In his complaint, Lalitkumar Tekchandani, 49, said on Friday afternoon he sent two YouTube video links to Bhujbal on his mobile number. He claimed the ‘analytical’ videos were prepared by some YouTube channel showing how Bhujbal allegedly insulted Hindu deities.

Nearly 47 minutes later, the businessman received calls and messages from unknown numbers asking him to refrain from sending such videos to the former deputy chief minister. The callers abused Tekchandani and threatened to shoot him in his house. The callers also said that they would hire people from Dubai to bump him off, the FIR said.

Tekchandani submitted 18 screenshots of the threat messages to the police. “The Chembur police have registered a case. It has been transferred to unit 6 of the crime branch,” deputy commissioner of police (zone 6) Krishnakant Upadhyay said.

A crime branch officer said since the video links were sent to the NCP leader on his direct number and the complainant received threat calls thereafter, it prima facie indicates Bhujbal’s hand behind the death threats and hence, he had been named as an accused.

The NCP leader refuted the allegations and said the complainant had even filed cases against him in the past.

“Ever since the controversy started, someone kept sending me something or the other. The mobile number was new so I asked a friend, a Pune-based worker, to check why this unknown person was harassing me. Tekchandani didn’t take his call but responded to a text message saying that he was a Hindu and had the right to freedom of speech. The text is available on the phone,” Bhujbal told reporters in Nashik.

He added, “I did not call him on the phone. No one has threatened him. He is trying to harass me by taking advantage of the controversy.”

Bhujbal and the two unidentified mobile number users have been booked under sections 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

When asked if he had filed a separate complaint about the alleged derogatory remarks on Hindu deities, Tekchandani said, “Not yet, but will do it soon.”

Around eight years ago, the businessman had filed a complaint against Bhujbal and others after he allegedly received death threats from members of Dawood Ibrahim’s family.