Nagpur: In a major breakthrough in the alleged threats to Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra Police has said that the threats were issued by Jayesh Kantha alias Pujari at the behest of jailed Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Afsar Pasha, officials said. It is learnt that a team of police has been dispatched to Belgaum Jail, where Pasha is lodged, to take into custody for questioning in the case.
Sources said that the police will take Pasha's cellphones into custody for forensic examination. As for Pujari, he has already been arrested by the police in the case in March this year. The case relates to two alleged extortion calls made to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's office by the accused on Jan. 14 and Mar. 21 this year.
In the threat calls, the accused are said to have demanded extortion money from the union minister. Following the threat calls, the union minister had lodged a complaint with the Maharashtra Police. Following the complaint, the accused Pujari was arrested and brought to Nagpur in ending March. He is currently lodged at Nagpur central jail. It is pertinent to mention here that Pujari faces charges under the UAPA in two cases registered against him.
As for Afsar Pasha, he is lodged in Belgaum Jail on charges of carrying out bomb blasts in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2003 and Bangalore in 2008. Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said that a team of Nagpur Police has left for Belgaum to arrest him in the extortion case. The NIA has also registered a separate case in Bangalore in the case.
