Kolkata police nab two for threatening to kill Padma Shri awardee Ustad Rashid Khan

A team of ARS officials reached Lucknow and arrested Deepak Ulkan and Avinash Kumar Bharati who were making death threats and ransom calls to the renowned classical singer.

Kolkata:The cops of the Anti-Rowdy Squad (ARS), under the Detective Department (DD) of Kolkata police, have arrested two persons for making death threats and ransom calls to the renowned classical singer Rashid Khan.

Both were arrested from Lucknow, confirmed the joint commissioner (crime) of the city police, Murlidhar Sharma. They had been making threatening calls to Khan stating that a hired sniper was waiting right in front of his house to assassinate him.

It is learnt that on October 9, 2021, Khan, a resident of Naktala Area in South Kolkata, filed a complaint at the local Netaji Nagar Police Station in this regard. In the complaint, he said that a few days back he appointed a youth as his driver. However, later the driver was expelled because of his rude behaviour. Since then the renowned classical singer had been receiving threatening and ransom calls from different numbers.

Khan was threatened that he and his daughter would be shot once they step out of the house and for that purpose a hired sniper was waiting right in front of his house. He was asked to shell out an amount of Rs 50 lakhs to be alive. From Netaji Nagar Police station the matter was referred to ARS. “We have enquired on why he was expelled from his job. Cases have been filed under various sections relating to giving life threats and ransom,” an investigating official said.

First, the Cyber Crime Division of Kolkata Police tracked the tower location of the mobile numbers where these calls were made. After that a team of ARS officials reached Lucknow and from there they arrested Deepak Ulkan and Avinash Kumar Bharati. The latter was employed as the driver by Khan and was expelled later.