NEW DELHI, Nov 3: The Mumbai police on Sunday arrested a 24-year-old woman for allegedly giving a death threat to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, an official said.
A message received on the Mumbai Traffic Police control room’s WhatsApp helpline number from an unknown number said Yogi Adityanath would be killed like Baba Siddique (the Nationalist Congress Party leader) if he did not resign in 10 days.
The Mumbai Police arrested Fatima Khan after an investigation revealed that the message was sent from her number. Police sources said Ms Khan is highly qualified and has been suffering from mental health issues. The woman, it is learnt, holds a BSc degree in Information Technology, and lives in Ulhasnagar area of Thane near Mumbai with her family. Her father is into the timber business, sources said.
“The woman is well qualified but is mentally unstable,” the police said. The Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in a combined operation with the Ulhasnagar police traced the woman and apprehended her, the official said. Further investigation was on into the matter, the official added.
The police are on alert as Mr Adityanath is likely to come to Maharashtra for campaigning for the November 20 State Assembly polls, as per officials. Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique was shot dead in Mumbai’s Bandra area on October 12. Jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang has claimed responsibility for the murder.
The latest threat message comes amid a wave of death threats received by Mumbai police over the past several weeks. Most of these targeted Salman Khan and threatened that the actor would be killed unless he paid a ransom. Against the backdrop of the firing outside the actor’s residence earlier this year, the cops tracked down senders of these messages and took them into custody. They include a vegetable seller from Jamshedpur and a tattoo artist from Noida. Mumbai Police have taken them into transit remand and are questioning them.
One of these threat messages named Zeeshan Siddique, Bandra MLA and son of Baba Siddique. The murdered politician was known to be close to Salman Khan, who has in the past received death threats from the Bishnoi gang, apparently due to his involvement in the blackbuck hunting case in Rajasthan during the shooting of Hum Saath Hain. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang was also found to be behind the firing outside Salman Khan’s home in April. The actor’s security has been beefed up after the firing outside and death threats.
(Manas Dasgupta)