Accused in Nitin Gadkari threat case swallows wire, kept under monitoring

An accused, arrested for allegedly making threat calls to Union minister Nitin Gadkari's office here, swallowed iron wire while in jail though he remains in good health as of now, police said on Saturday.

Jayesh Pujari alias Kantha, lodged in the Central Jail here, has been kept under monitoring, said an official.

Earlier this week, he told jail officials that he had swallowed a piece of wire and '50 tablets'. He was produced before a court on Thursday where he reiterated the claim, and was examined, on the court's order, by the doctors at the Government Medical College and Hospital.

The examination confirmed the presence of wire fragments in his stomach, but his health remained unaffected and he was declared fit by the doctors, the official said.

He was then taken back to the central jail. The prison's medical team continues to monitor his condition closely, the official said.

Pujari had repeatedly tried to get himself transferred to the Belagavi jail where he had been lodged earlier, the official said. It is suspected that he wanted to move to that jail as he had built a criminal network there and enjoyed access to mobile phones and some other facilities.

While lodged in Belagavi jail, Pujari allegedly made threat calls to Gadkari's office in January this year after colluding with Bengaluru terror attack convict Afsar Pasha. Claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, he demanded Rs 100 crore.

He made another call on March 21, after which he was arrested in the case and brought to Nagpur.