Threats to MLAs may be from hackers: UP police

The Uttar Pradesh police said today the threatening messages sent to MLAs in recent days may be the handiwork of professional hackers out to create panic.

Twenty-two Uttar Pradesh MLAs, most of them from the ruling BJP, have got texts or WhatsApp messages asking them to pay Rs 10 lakh or their families will be eliminated.

The state police yesterday formed a special task force to investigate the threatening messages from someone who seemed to be claiming a past link with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

"We are working on it, Additional DG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told PTI.

So far, as per my knowledge, we have got complaints from 22 MLAs regarding the threatening messages. Similar messages were sent in Rajasthan, Bhopal and New Delhi," he said.

"It appears to be the handiwork of professional hackers, who are using a proxy server to send messages. It's motivated propaganda to create panic," he said.

"The SIT will certainly crack the case, he said, adding that the police had got some leads.

In all the messages, the sender has given out his name as Ali Budesh Bhai from Dubai, a reference to a gangster once linked to the now Pakistan-based Dawood Ibrahim.

The SIT team was set up after directions from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who took strong note of the threats.

The MLAs who got the messages include Veer Vikram Singh (Meeranpur Katra in Shahjahanpur), Manvendra Singh (Dadraul in Shahjahanpur), Prem Prakash Pandey (Tarabganj in Gonda), Vinay Kumar Dwivedi (Mehnam in Gonda), Vinod Katiyar (Bhognipur in Kanpur), Shahshank Trivedi (Mahauli in Sitapur) and Anita Rajput (Debai in Bulandshahr), Dhirendra Bahadur Singh (Sareni-Raebareli).

The opposition yesterday attacked the Adityanath government over the messages.

"No one is secure in the present regime. The MLAs are being threatened of dire consequences, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had said.

There is no law and order in the state," he added.

Congress spokesman Arun Prakash levelled the same charge, saying the threats to legislators "expose the tall claims of the BJP government.