Threat calls to Gadkari: NIA team leaves from Nagpur with case documents

The National Investigation Agency which probed the threat calls made to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has left for Mumbai after taking case documents from the Nagpur police, an official said on Saturday.

The NIA team had arrived in Nagpur on Thursday to probe the case, for which a murder convict lodged in a Karnataka jail has been held, an official said.

Jayesh Pujari alias Kantha is accused of making the calls from a jail in Belgaum in neighbouring Karnataka, as per police.

On January 14, he demanded Rs 100 crore from Gadkari claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, while he made a second call seeking Rs 10 crore on March 21.

He was brought to Nagpur on March 28 after police invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

"The NIA team left for Mumbai on Friday. They have taken investigation reports and have asked us to prepare some documents related to the case," the Nagpur police station official said.

A police probe found he had links to Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives and had also got arms training from ultras in the north east of the country, after which the Ministry of Home Affairs directed the NIA to begin a probe, the official said.

"An NIA team under a deputy inspector general rank officer has arrived in Nagpur. The NIA team took case papers of two offences registered in the matter in Dhantoli police station in their possession. They will decide if Kantha needs to be arrested immediately," a Nagpur police official had said on Thursday.