Bihar minister alleges threat call, lodges complaint

Bihar’s revenue and land reforms minister Alok Kumar Mehta, who had last week attacked the “upper castes”, on Tuesday alleged that he has received death threats from two people in calls on his registered official mobile number and sent a complaint letter to Patna police chief for action.

Patna’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) M S Dhillon confirmed having received a complaint letter on his WhatsApp from Mehta and said he has sent it to the secretariat police station to lodge a case. “As the complaint is addressed to the police station, a case will be lodged. We will identify the callers and take action,” he said.

In his complaint, Mehta, who is from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has said both the callers used caste slurs and threatened to kill him.

“The first caller appeared to be Deepak Pandey in Truecaller, a mobile app that shows the registered identity of the caller. The second caller appeared as Pappu Tripathi on the app,” he has said in his letter.

The numbers of the callers were also mentioned in the complaint letter.

On Saturday last week, while speaking at a public meeting in Bhagalpur district, Mehta had said, “People who used to toll bells at temples are now occupying powerful positions. Take Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for instance.”

Further, the minister said 10 per cent of the country’s population, who used to be agents of the British Raj, are now running their writ on the remaining 90 per cent comprising disadvantaged and backward communities.

“Ninety per cent of our population, which was represented by (former Bihar deputy chief minister) Jagdev Babu, was exploited first by the British Raj and then by their agents, whom Jagdev Babu called 10 per cent,” Mehta claimed.

After a backlash on social media, the minister later issued a clarification.

In a personalised video, Mehta said the 10 per cent that Jagdev Babu talked about are not people of any particular caste but represent a class, which has been exploiting the backward classes and the practice continues to this day.