Ministers, thinkers, actors receive life threatening letters in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Sep 30 (IANS) Three ministers, religious seer, and progressive thinkers and actors have received life threatening letters in Karnataka by the anonymous person.

The three ministers have been identified as Minister for Health Dinesh Gundu Rao, Minister for RDPR, IT and BT Priyank Kharge and Minister for PWD Satish Jarkiholi.  The life threatening letter was posted to the address of Nishkala Mantapa Ashram run by Nijagunananda Swamiji.

The letter also mentions the names of progressive thinkers S.G. Siddaramaiah, K. Marulasiddappa, Baraguru Ramachandrappa, Bhaskar Prasad, Prof. Bhagavan, Prof. Mahesh Chandra Guru, B.T. Lalita Nayak, Dwarakanath, Devanuru Mahadeva, B.L. Venu, actors and activists Prakash Raj and Chetan Ahimsa.

The letter was received by the Ashram in Bailahongala in Belagavi district on September 20. The life threatening letter mentions that, all who have been named, do they have courage to speak up what is being done by communal Muslims?

The letter also asked them will they raise their voice against the anti-national activities.

The letter also makes mention of progressive religious seer Nijagunananda Swamiji, saying that he must think of the letter as a death warrant.

“The death will come to you in your own programme. I am not joking. You are a demon in form of a human. You are a demon who abuses Hindu gods and goddess. You are in the last stage of your life. There is no other way but to finish you off,” the letter said.

Shivaji Rao Jadhav, a Hindu activist from Karnataka’s Davanagere district, has been arrested for sending threatening letters to more than 15 progressive Kannada authors and thinkers, police said on Saturday.

However, the police have not said whether the letter was written by the same accused.

Jadhav was arrested in the district by sleuths of the City Central Crime Branch (CCB).

The accused had been writing the threatening letters for the past two years, leading to the targeted authors meeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on multiple occasions while demanding swift action.

In his letters, Jadhav has threatened the victims, including K. Veerabhadrappa, B.L. Venu, Banjagere Jayaprakash, B.T. Lalita Naik, Vasundhara Bhupathi, for going against Hindutva, saying that they should count their last days.

The case was handed over to the Special Wing CCB and experts of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) found that all letters were written by the same person but posted from different districts and taluks.