The Central CEN Crime Police Station in Bengaluru has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unknown suspects in connection to a death threat to a Karnataka High Court employee and six judges, police revealed on Monday, 24 July. A case has been lodged on the complaint of a Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Karnataka High Court, K Muralidhar.
According to the police, Muralidhar told them that he received a threatening call and WhatsApp messages on his official number in which a caller demanded ransom money. The suspect threatened him that if he didn’t transfer the money into his Pakistani account, he would kill him and six judges of the Karnataka High Court. However, the caller didn’t reveal his identity.
According to the complaint filed on 14 July, Muralidhar received a call and messages from an international number at 7 pm on the 12th of July. The unknown suspect sent messages in Hindi, Urdu and English.
In these threatening messages, the accused demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. He gave Muralidhar details of a Pakistani bank account number linked with ‘ABL Allied Bank Limited’ and asked him to deposit the ransom amount in this account. The message sender threatened Muralidhar that if the money was not transferred, six judges of the court along with him would be killed by a ‘Dubai gang’.
The names of the High Court Judges mentioned in these threatening messages include Justices Mohammad Nawaz, HT Narendra Prasad, Ashok Nijagannanavar, HP Sandesh, K Natarajan, and Veerappa.
Additionally, five suspicious mobile phone numbers were also mentioned in these threatening messages stating, “Yah Indian hamare apne shooter hain (these are our Indian shooters).”
According to the Police, they have registered an FIR under Sections 506, 507, and 504 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 75 and 66(F) of the Information Technology Act. Additionally, they have submitted it before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
A day earlier, on 23rd July, the Mumbai Police control room received a threatening call in which the caller said that a tanker filled with RDX and two Pakistani nationals onboard was going from Mumbai to Goa.
Previously, on 18 July, the Mumbai Police’s traffic control room received another threatening call, in which the caller claimed of carrying out another 26/11-style of attack in Mumbai. The unknown caller claimed that the governments of CM Yogi and PM Modi are on the target and cartridges and AK-47s are present at specific locations. The caller threatened a potential 26/11-style attack in Mumbai.
In another such threatening call, one unknown caller threatened to destroy India, if Seema Haider doesn’t return back to Pakistan.
