Probe on after DIG Prisons receives anonymous threat calls

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In a shocking revelation, the Karnataka Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Prisons, North Range, TP Shesha, received three anonymous calls threatening to blow up two prisons and his residential quarters, sources from the police told News Trail on Monday.

Sources further said that the caller claimed to be a close aide of a gangster Bannanje Raje alias Rajendra Kumar who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and organised crime activities.

The calls were made to Sesha, on Sunday following which the top official registered a case at Belagavi Rural Police Station.

In his complaint, Sesha stated that he got a call from an anonymous person who threatened to plant bombs at Belagavi Hindalaga Central Jail, Bengaluru Central Jail and the residential quarters of the DIG.

According to the police, the calls were made from three different numbers on October 8. In the first call, the man claimed that he had connections with senior officials of the Belagavi Hindalaga Central Jail and threatened to create a ruckus inside the jail wherein the prison officials would be attacked.

In the next two calls, the man threatened that he would get Bengaluru's Parappana Agrahara Central Jail and the DIG's residential quarters exploded.

The caller also claimed that he had helped the gangster Bannanje Raja when he was in jail and had good connections with him. The DIG stated that the caller may try to issue similar threats to some of the prison officials and demanded action against him.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the calls were made from the outskirts of Bengaluru, the police said. Earlier, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari received similar threat calls on January 14 and March 21 at his Nagpur office in Maharashtra.

The caller had threatened to blow up the minister's office and demanded a ransom of Rs 10 crore. Later, it was found that the call was made from Hindalaga prison by a prisoner named Jayesh Poojari.