One held for sending death threat letters to writers in Karnataka

The man from Davangere sent letters to the writers threatening to kill them like MM Kaiburgi and Gauri Lankesh. He has been sent to 10 days' police custody. Investigations are being held to ascertain whether he alone wrote the letters or others were involved in it.

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials have arrested a man, who had allegedly sent death threat letters to several Kannada writers across the state. The letters stated that the writers would meet the same fate as that of activists MM Kaiburgi and Gauri Lankesh, who were shot dead by right wing groups.

The accused, identified as Shivji Rao Jadhav, is a Hindu activist from Davangere. He has been remanded to 10 days of police custody by the court. The CCB officials will interrogate him for more information in regard to the case.

A delegation of writers had recently approached Home Minister G Parameshwar to initiate a thorough investigation into these threat letters. They said that the letters threatened that they would meet the same fate as that of activists MM Kaiburgi and Gauri Lankesh, who were shot dead by right wing groups.

Also, the writers said that the letters asked them to write about riots during which DJ Halli and KG Halli were set on fire during the previous government's tenure. The letters stated that if they did not write about the riots then they would be insulting Hinduism.

The Home Minister had assured to initiate a probe and get to the bottom of the case. Parameshwar directed Director General of Police Alok Mohan and Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda to ensure security of the writers. An investigation was initiated and it was later transferred to CCB.

For the last two years, writers namely Kum Veerabhadhrappa, BT Lalitha Naik, K Marulasiddappa, Dr. G Ramakrishna, Prof S G Siddaramaiah, Banjagere Jayaprakash, Vimala, Sripada Bhatt, Surendra Rao and others were getting anonymous death threat letters. FIRs were registered in this regard in seven areas of the state including Bengaluru.

A team led by CCB ACP Naveen Kulkarni, arrested the accused. "We will dig out more information from the accused during the interrogations. However, whether Shivaji alone was behind writing those letter or there were others who were involved in the process can be ascertained only after the investigations are completed," an official said.