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Delhi man arrested for posing as Lawrence Bishnoi's aide to threaten MP Pappu Yadav
Independent MP Pappu Yadav had claimed that the caller from a “Dubai number” was upset over his social media outburst against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The Bihar police on Saturday arrested a man from Delhi who posed as jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi's aide to allegedly threaten independent MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, news agency PTI reported.
A case was registered in Bihar's Purnea, the MP's constituency, based on reports surfacing about the threat in social media. Yadav reportedly received the call from a “Dubai number” and also sent letters to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, asking for enhanced security cover.
The Purnea Police traced the caller to Delhi and arrested a man named Mahesh Pandey. During questioning, Pandey confessed that he called the MP through WhatsApp, using a SIM card he had borrowed from his wife's sister who lives in the UAE.
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Police have also seized the mobile phone and SIM card used by Pandey to make the alleged threat call. The accused reportedly made the call to the MP after the latter's recent outburst against Bishnoi after the assassination of former Maharashtra minister & NCP leader Baba Siddique.
On Wednesday, Yadav had claimed that the caller was upset over his social media outbursts against Bishnoi, who is lodged in a Gujarat jail.
Officials said the accused found the MP's number on Google. Police also made it clear that "no links with Lawrence Bishnoi gang" have been established yet.
Pappu Yadav's outburst
Soon after the assassination of Siddique by shooters from Bishnoi's gang, Yadav claimed that he would "finish off within 24 hours the entire network" of the gangster “if permitted by law”.
The MP also expressed solidarity with Bollywood actor Salman Khan, who is reportedly on the hit list of Bishnoi's gang for allegedly killing a blackbuck, considered a sacred animal by the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan.
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After his outburst, his wife and Rajya Sabha Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan sought to distance herself and her family from Yadav's comment.
“Pappu ji and I have different political careers and we have differences between us. For the last one-and-a-half or two years, we are also staying separately. Whatever statement he has made, my children or I have nothing to do with it,” she said, asking the government to look into the “law and order” issue.
(With PTI inputs)
