The Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) detained an ayurvedic doctor from Nanded district of Maharashtra on Thursday after BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur alleged that she received an envelope containing poisonous chemicals in it. The police have reportedly confiscated the envelope from her residence that carried a letter written in Urdu.
The letter was sent in October, but as Sadhvi Pragya was not present in Bhopal at that time, the envelope was not opened, as letters personally addressed to the MP are opened only on her presence. The envelope was opened on January 13, and it contained a letter in Urdu, a plastic pouch with some chemical adhesive which caused a burning sensation, and some other papers.
According to Nanded police inspector Pradeep Kakade, one Dr Sayyed Abdul Rehman Khan (35), who operated a clinic in Dhanegaon village in Nanded was arrested by the MP ATS for allegedly sending a suspicious envelope to the Bhopal MP.
Kakade mentioned that the police had kept him under surveillance by tracking his mobile phone location for the last few months, as he had sent similar letters to other politicians and government officials too in the past. However, he would not take his phone with him while travelling to different cities such as Nanded, Nagpur, Pune and Aurangabad to post the letters to Sadhvi. In addition, Kakade claimed that Khan had been in dispute with his brother and was arrested for being involved in violent fights.
The letter written in Urdu mentioned a group called Ansarul Musalmeen, whose men had been assigned the task to eliminate Thakur and later carry out 26/11 and Pulwama style terror attacks. In the same letter, the doctor had written that his brother was a member of this terror group and he was among those assigned the task.
The letter also alleged that his brother and mother wanted to harm Pragya Thakur, and they had got him arrested in an attempt to murder case.
A police case was lodged under charges of criminal intimidation and deliberately causing grievous hurt after Sadhvi Pragya filed a complaint at Kamla Nagar police station, Bhopal.
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According to police sources, doctor Sayyed Abdul Rahman Khan did all these to frame his brother and mother in a false terror case. That’s why he had sent the letters from Pune, where his brother lives, and mentioned his brother and mother in the letter. He had also included copies of his brother’s documents and his mother’s identity card, so that the police investigation is directed at them. According to police, the earlier letters sent by Dr Sayyed to others also tried to frame his brother and mother in false terror cases.
Initial reports had claimed that the envelope also had crossed out photos of Thakur, PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, with a message stating that the MP had “insulted Mahatma Gandhi and the former Mumbai’s Anti Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare”.
However, Thakur had then said that the letters may have been sent by terrorists and that she is not intimidated by such tactics.
Sadhvi Pragya had often attracted criticism and ire from a section of people for her tendentious remarks. Recently, BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya was seen in her constituency, Bhopal, interacting with the people for spreading awareness about the Citizenship Amendment Act. Sadhvi participated in BJP’s door-to-door campaign where she distributed pamphlets in support of the Citizenship Law. She had then asserted that Madhya Pradesh will have to implement the law.