An undertrial murder accused lodged at Hindalga prison in Belagavi threatened Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday and warned of murdering him if he did not pay ₹100 crore, police said on Sunday.
Maharashtra police said after tracing the location of the caller, it informed Karnataka police and, with the help of Belagavi police, narrowed down the caller at Hindalga jail.
Police said the undertrial man, identified as Jayesh Kant, is said to have called the landline telephone of Gadkari’s Public Relations office at Khamla in Nagpur at 11.25 am, 11.32 am and 12.30 pm on Saturday. The caller said that he called on behalf of underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim and demanded ₹100 crore else the minister would be murdered. The caller also stated he was calling from Belagavi in Karnataka, police added.
The cellphone through which Kant called Gadkari’s office was of another undertrial who was admitted to the jail recently, police said.
Jail superintendent Krishna Kumar said that Jayesh Kant took the phone from the newcomer, saying he would return it after calling his wife.
Krishna Kumar said that not only the undertrial whose cellphone Jayesh Kant used to call minister Gadkari’s office but also the stock-inspecting staff of the jail is being questioned about how the device left with the latter.
Krishna Kumar further said Jayesh Kant’s profile described him as a cheater and a blackmailer who has been lodged in jail for a murder committed in Mangaluru in 2020.
“Intending to get the attention of the administration as well to trouble the jail staff, Jayesh Kant has a practice of doing such calls from the jail to top brass as well the high-rank officials, recently, from jail, he had called threat ADGP Alok Kumar,” Krishna Kumar said.
Meanwhile, an officer leading the Maharashtra police team said as Jayesh Kant had taken the name of Dawood Ibrahim, a fugitive criminal wanted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, he was grilled for more than three hours late at night. The interrogation was conducted by Maharashtra Police in the early hours of Sunday.
