Karachi Bakery gets threat call demanding name change

Karachi Bakery is once again getting threats over its name.

A man who gave his name as Vicky Shetty reportedly made a VoIP call to the in-charge of the bakery's Indiranagar outlet on February 25, demanding the name change and threatening to "shoot down" the popular eatery if Karachi is not removed from its brand name. VoIP is short for 'voice over Internet protocol', which allows users to make and receive calls using the Internet.

Sukumar P, 35, the bakery in-charge, later approached the Indiranagar police and got an FIR registered under IPC section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication). Police surmise that the caller is the underworld don from Mangaluru, Vicky Shetty.

Sukumar stated in the complaint that the call was made around 1 pm from an unknown number. "I presume my phone number was taken from Google," he told DH.

The caller asked Sukumar if he owned the bakery. When he replied in the negative, the caller asked him to convey a message to the owner. "Karachi is a Pakistani city and its name cannot be used in India," he said and demanded that the name be changed within 24 hours. In case the demand is not met, the caller said he and his associates would shoot down the bakery and destroy it. The caller then hung up.

A senior police officer said efforts were on to trace the source of the call. A preliminary probe shows it was a VoIP call, he added.

On February 22, a gang of 15-20 men had barged into the bakery's Indiranagar outlet and asked the staff to remove Karachi from the signboard in protest over the Pulwama suicide bombing. The bakery staff tried to reason with the men, saying the bakery's owner is a Hindu and that he's got nothing to do with Pakistan. They later hoisted the national flag on the building to pacify the gang.

The next day, police rounded up nine people, including seven self-styled social activists, for unlawful assembly and criminal intimidation. The suspects, however, got bail. Karachi Bakery, which is headquartered in Hyderabad, released a tweet the same day, saying it's "absolutely Indian by heart".