On October 25, Karnataka fisheries and youth and sports minister K Abhayachandra Jain allegedly received death threats from don Ravi Pujari, who said he would attack Jain for being involved in the murder of Bajrang Dal activist Prashant Poojary, who was killed in Moodbidri on October 9.
This came a day after Jain was spotted in a photograph at a blood donation camp organised by Popular Front of India (PFI) in March 2015, with Mohammed Sharif Todar, who is the key accused in Poojary’s murder. According to The Times of India, the fugitive gangster allegedly said that he would “finish” him (Jain) off for "helping" the murderers of Prashant Poojary.
Sources in the Congress told TOI that another minister, B Ramanath Rai, too got a call from Pujari.
However, Rai denied that he got any calls but was aware that Jain received one on Saturday. Following this, more security cover is being provided for both ministers.
Jain reportedly received a call from gangster Ravi Pujari at 12:39pm on October 24 while he was on his way to Moodbidri, his assembly constituency.
TOI quoted Jain saying, "I received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other side said he was Ravi Pujari. He was speaking in Hindi and said I was involved in the murder of Prashant Poojary and that he was planning to finish me off. I was taken aback, but recovered quickly and tried to tell him in my broken Hindi and English that I was not involved in the murder."
According to the newspaper report, Ravi Pujari accused both ministers for protecting the right-wing activist’s murderers. Jain said that he hung up after futile attempts to explain to Pujari that he was not involved.
The next day, he met Mangaluru police commissioner S Murugan and filed a complaint after which Jain was provided with a gunman and additional security cover, said TOI.
This is an aggregated report from The Times of India