Nagpur: Investigators in the case of threat calls to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari have learnt that the Bengaluru terror attack case convict Afsar Pasha had come to Nagpur twice in the past. The police are questioning Pasha to ascertain the reason behind his Nagpur visits. Dhantoli police are searching for the connection of the threat call to Gadkari with Pasha’s tour to Nagpur.
A senior police official said that Pasha had come to Nagpur in 2003- 04. However, the details of his stay in the city are yet to be established, he said. In 2005, Pasha was involved in a terror attack at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bengaluru. The terrorists had opened fire at delegates emerging from an international conference at the IISc on December 28, 2005, killing Prof Munish Chandra Puri, a retired professor of IIT-Delhi, and injuring four others. The court convicted Pasha and four others in the case in 2011 and handed down life imprisonment sentences to them.
The police are suspecting that Jayesh Pujari alias Kantha had made the threat calls to Gadkari’s office after colluding and planning with Pasha. Pasha was brought to Nagpur on Saturday evening amid tight security. Pujari had made a threat call to Gadkari’s public relations office on January 14, demanding Rs 100 crore and claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. At that time, he was lodged in the Belgavai jail. He made another call on March 21, threatening to harm Gadkari if Rs 10 crore were not paid to him. Pujari was arrested and brought to Nagpur on March 28 this year from a jail in Belagavi, and two cases were registered under provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act at Dhantoli police station.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed two separate First Investigation Reports (FIRs) at Mumbai on the basis of FIRs registered by Dhantoli police in the case under the provisions o f Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Subsequently, the NIA moved an application to the Special Court in Nagpur seeking transfer of the UAPA cases registered at Dhantoli police stations. The Nagpur police submitted ‘No Objection’ for the NIA’s demand on Friday. The special court will hear the matter on Monday and is likely to decide the fate of the case this week.
