A team of Maharashtra police officers arrived in Belagavi on Saturday to see if an inmate of the central prison in Hindalga made threat calls to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. The team members said that this is the second time that Jayesh Pujari, a life convict, has made the calls in three months.
The accused supposedly called the landline telephones of Mr. Gadkari’s office in Nagpur and sought ₹10 crore. He also threatened the staff with dire consequences. The calls were made from a mobile phone, which is yet to be traced. The calls were made on March 21. The first attempt was a dead call. In 10 minutes, he made another call and asked the staff to make a payment to a woman in Bengaluru, sources in Belagavi police said.
Maharashtra police are inquiring into the connection between a couple in Bengaluru and the jail inmate. Two officers have left for Bengaluru.
The inmate, Jayesh Pujari, alias Kanta, alias Mohammad, hails from Dakshina Kannada. He was brought to Belagavi a few years ago, after a court sentenced him to death following his conviction in a case of armed dacoity and murder for gain. The sentence was pronounced in 2008. However, this was later commuted to life sentence.
He made two similar calls in January this year. He demanded ₹100 crore from the Minister failing which, he threatened, the underworld will finish him [Minister] off.
Maharashtra police traced those calls and descended on Belagavi. At first, Jayesh Pujari denied making the calls, but admitted to the offence later. Local police, together with Maharashtra police, conducted a two day search in the jail. They searched the barracks but failed to find the phone sets or SIM cards that were used to make the call. They, however, seized a diary containing the phone numbers of Mr. Gadkari’s office and other VIPs.
“Jayesh Pujari is a habitual liar. He has made numerous false claims like being a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang and having been converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman. His statements are unreliable,” said a prison officer.
Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP), Nagpur, Amitesh Kumar has written to the ADGP (Prisons), Bengaluru, seeking cooperation, the police said.
