The State police have arrested a construction employee hailing from Malappuram district on the charge of threatening to kill Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan.
They identified the suspect as Babu Chacko, a member of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)-affiliated Construction Workers' Federation of India.
Investigators said the suspect called the City Police Control Room, Thiruvananthapuram, at 4.50 p.m. on Monday and sought the help of the police in tracing his missing wife, Mini.
They said Babu threatened to kill the Chief Minister before 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday if the police failed to trace her. He also raised a few slogans. The digital voice recorder at the control room has captured Babu's statements.
The investigators found that Babu had made the call from a mobile phone connection (9495 122917) procured in the name of Mini, Purathiyil House, Kizhatoor, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram. The call had emanated from a mobile phone tower at Mannanthala, a city suburb.
In the form filed for getting the connection, the applicant had given an alternative cell phone number (9446 992416) as reference.
Investigators said the second number was registered in the name of Muhammad Ali, Kakkunnan House, Tharish, Karumaru Kundu, Malappuram district. The police were verifying Muhammad's antecedents and links.
The police said Babu was emotionally distressed after a domestic scuffle with his wife. When he attempted to contact her, she told him that she had left for Thiruvananthapuram.
The police said Babu also visited Santhigiri Ashram, where he had worked briefly at a construction site, at Pothencode, a suburb, on Monday. They arrested him as he alighted from a train at Melattur railway station on the Shoranur-Nilambur rail route early on Tuesday.
The Cantonment police have booked him on the charge of criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication under Section 507 of the Indian Penal Code. The offence carries a punishment of two years' imprisonment. The police said they would subject Babu to a psychiatric examination.
