In recent days, a man living in the Gulf has allegedly been giving sleepless nights to legislators in Uttar Pradesh. According to police, the man, Ali Baba Budesh, is a notorious extortionist.
Threat messages via WhatsApp from Budesh on Tuesday sought Rs 10 lakh from 11 politicians, a large number of whom belong to the BJP. The messages created ripples in political circles in the state.
The WhatsApp messages threatened the politicians with severe consequences if they did not pay the money as demanded. The time given to them is three days. The messages were sent from +1(903)329—4240. Budesh has threatened to target the leaders' families too.
According to UP Police, nine BJP MLAs and some other political leaders have reported the threats to the police.
The police, keeping in mind the threats, are planning to provide adequate security to the politicians and have deployed Special Task Force (STF) and Anti-terror Squad (ATS) to deal with the case.
Almost all the threats reportedly carry identical messages. The BJP MLA from Sitapur, Shashank Trivedi, lodged a complaint with Mahanagar Police in Lucknow. Two others MLAs, Prem Naraina Pandey and Vinay Kumar Diwedi, too have lodged complaints with the Lucknow Police.
DIG (law and order) Praveen Kumar confirmed the threats and added that at first instance, the threats appear to be mischief by some unidentified person but the police are probing the matter.
According to inspector of Mahanagar police station, Vikas Pandey, Trivedi had received the text message on his WhatsApp number in the wee hours of Tuesday. Accordingly, the police have registered an FIR in the case.
The UP DGP Om Prakash Singh said police is quite close to solving the case and these messages have been sent through voice over internet protocol (VOIP).
BJP legislators who have received these messages include Prem Narain Pandey, Vinay Diwedi, Veer Vikram Singh, Vinod Katiyaar and Trivedi. Former minister Rajesh Tripathi and another political leader Susheel Chaurasia too received such threats.
BJP legislator from Debai, Anita Lodhi too has received this threat for the fourth time in past three days. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has assured Lodhi of appropriate action in the matter.