Shivaji Rao Jadhav, the man who was arrested by the Bengaluru police for writing threat letters to 61 progressive writers, maintained a list of writers and intellectuals who were speaking against Hindutva. He also copiously read right-wing nationalists, including VD Savarkar, investigators in the case told TNM. The police believe that Jadhav, who wrote anonymous letters under the pen name Sahishna Hindu (tolerant Hindu), was a lone wolf. However, they are closely tracking his network of friends, a source confirmed.
While Jadhav has been given bail, he is yet to be released as he is yet to find someone from Bengaluru to give the bail surety on his behalf. Meanwhile, the police have expanded the scope of the investigation to probe the people he was in touch with and possibly shared his extreme right-wing leanings. Jadhav, who is a Class 8 dropout, worked in a printing press in central Karnataka’s Davanagere and was influenced by right-wing ideology by reading the literature that was printed at the press.
After Jadhav’s arrest on September 30, 2023, the police conducted searches at his residence in Davanagere and seized pamphlets and books he was reading. They are also scrutinising his mobile device to get more insight into the people he kept in touch with and retrieve the conversations they had. Through these searches, the police have found a link between Jadhav and Sujith Kumar, who is Accused 13 in the murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh. Sujith is believed to be a recruiter for Sanatan Sanstha and other Hindutva extremist organisations.
“Jadav had met Sujith a couple of times on different occasions. Before meeting Sujith, Jadav had written just two or three threat letters but they were not harsh. We have not been able to establish a concrete link between the two, but the letters by Jadhav certainly got more violent in nature after the meetings,” a senior police officer told TNM. The meetings are believed to have taken place in 2018.
The police say that Jadhav used to read around a dozen newspapers in a library close to his house in Davanagere. He then started making a list of writers and intellectuals who opposed Hindutva. He started sourcing books written by them and collected their addresses from those books in order to send the threat letters via post. The investigators say that after writing a letter, he routinely scanned all the newspapers to see if it had received press coverage and if cases were filed against him, that is the writer of the letters. He also has newspaper cuttings of the articles written about his threat letters, the police say.
Jadhav was a sarsanghchalak (co-ordinator) for the Hindu Jagarana Vedike and organised many small protests against ‘killings of Hindu activists’ like Harsha, a Bajrang Dal worker who was murdered in Shivamogga on February 20, 2022. Jadhav also spoke strongly against other issues that he perceived were against Hindutva, including the hijab and halal rows in Karnataka.
During one such demonstration, Davanagere police had booked Jadhav under IPC section 107, which pertains to breach of the peace or disturbing public tranquillity.
Since April 2022, Jadhav regularly wrote letters with threats of violence and death to around six progressive writers, rationalists, and thinkers who had spoken against religious radicalism and Hindutva. He wrote to 61 others, including noted writers K Marulasiddappa, author Kum Veerabhadrappa, BL Venu, Baraguru Ramachandrappa, Banjagere Jayaprakasha, and veteran journalist Dinesh Amin Mattu. In the letters, Jadhav called them names like deshdrohi (traitor), anti-national, and Hindu virodhi (anti-Hindu). The letters usually ended with a demand for a public apology and an ultimatum that if the writers do not change their ways, then they should “prepare for death in any form, which will come shortly”.
Cumulatively, seven complaints had been filed by those who received the letters, but they alleged that the previous BJP government under CM Bommai had taken no action to nab the letter writer.
On August 22, 2023, a delegation of the writers met CM Siddaramaiah and sought action, after which the case was handed over to Bengaluru Police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted. Jadhav was arrested a month later by tracking the postal stamp on the letters received and reviewing CCTV footage from near the post office in Davanagere from where he posted the letters.
Read: An anonymous letter-writer is targeting progressive Kannada writers and liberals