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NIA takes over probe into threat calls to Nitin Gadkari
NIA filed a FIR on July 13 over two threat phone calls to Union minister Nitin Gadkari in January and March 2023
NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) last week filed a case to probe two threat calls by jailed criminal Jayesh Pujari demanding protection money from the Union minister Nitin Gadkari earlier this year.
The agency filed the first information report (FIR) on July 13, a day after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) gave its nod for a NIA probe under penal provisions relating to criminal intimidation and extortion as well as terror charges . The FIR names Jayesh Pujari and unknown others.
“On March 21, 2023, at around 10:55am, a caller who introduced himself as Jayesh Pujari, an inmate in Belagavi prison, Karnataka, and also associated with Dawood Group (referring to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s gang), telephoned the public relations office of a Union minister (Gadkari) and demanded the extortion money of ₹10 crore and threatened to kill the union minister with a bomb blast, if the aforesaid demand is not met,” said the FIR registered by NIA. HT has reviewed the document
The same caller, the FIR added, earlier demanded an amount of ₹100 crore and threatened to kill the minister on January 14, 2023.
People familiar with the threat calls said the role of Lashkar-e-Taiba and another person, Afsar Pasha, who is alleged to be Pujari’s associate, is being investigated.
Pujari, who is serving a life sentence in Belagavi’s Hindalaga jail since 2013 for a murder in his hometown Mangaluru in 2011, converted to Islam while in prison and changed his name to Shakeer Ahmed.
The Nagpur police, which was investigating the case before NIA moved in, questioned Afsar Pasha about the case.
The federal anti-terror probe agency is expected to question both of them.
Nitin Gadkari is a Z-plus category protectee and has the highest level of security cover extended by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
