Bengaluru youth arrested for sending threats to Aaditya Thackeray

In a swift operation, the Mumbai Police has arrested a Bengaluru-based youth for allegedly threatening Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s son and state Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray.

The threat to Thackeray Jr and other legislators and leaders over the past few months rocked the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly after which state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil assured a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe.

“We will form a state-level SIT to investigate this matter,” he said referring to the threat to Aaditya.

The Mumbai Police has identified the accused as Jaisingh Bajrangsingh Rajput, who is in his mid-thirties.

The accused -- arrested by the Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police -- was described as a fan of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead on June 14, 2020, at his rented duplex flat in Mount Blanc building at Bandra.

Shiv Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu raised the issue of the death threat to Aaditya Thackeray in the Assembly.

Prabhu sought to connect the matter with neighbouring Karnataka from where the accused was caught.

Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik of NCP claimed that he too received such threats in the past and suspects the same organisations that murdered Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare are behind it.

"The manner in which Aaditya Thackeray received a threat letter, we suspect if it's connected to the organisations that murdered Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. I too have received such threats. We've written for an investigation into it," Malik said.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said that the threat is a serious issue and needs to be politicised. “I will extend all help... if need be I will travel to Karnataka and speak to Chief Minister (Basavraj Bommai),” he said.

“We condemn such a threat,” said state Congress President and MLA Nana Patole.

Former Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar of BJP said that threat to a member of legislature or anyone is a serious issue. “Let there be a committee of legislators to look into the issue,” he suggested.

Sushant (34) had acted in Bollywood films such as M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Kedarnath (2018) and Chhichhore (2019) and his death had sparked off a major political issue leading to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On December 8, the accused had called Aaditya, however, on non-receipt of call, he sent threatening WhatsApp messages.

Thereafter, an FIR under Sections 500 (defamation), 506 (2) (if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act was registered and investigations started.

One of the messages read, “You killed Sushant Singh Rajput…”

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