• Source:JND
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Bihar: A 35-year-old man from Bhagalpur district in Bihar was arrested on Thursday evening after allegedly threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi via a WhatsApp call during the PM’s ongoing visit to the state.

Authorities said the arrest was made swiftly, just hours after the threat was reported, through a joint operation by local police and central security agencies.

Police sources revealed that the Prime Minister’s Office received a threatening WhatsApp call targeting PM Modi during his Bihar visit. This immediately triggered a response from central agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Bhagalpur’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hriday Kant stated on Friday that once central agencies informed the local police, a special team was promptly assembled under Deputy Superintendent of Police (Law & Order) Chandra Bhushan. The team included personnel from the technical cell and the Sultanganj police station.

“Technical analysis revealed that the number had been activated 71 times using a virtual private network (VPN). The team subsequently traced a mobile number registered in the name of Mantu Chaudhary, a 71-year-old resident of Sultanganj,” the officer said.

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SSP Kant added that during questioning, Chaudhary, who claimed to be a non-matriculate farmer using a basic keypad phone, “denied any involvement and alleged that he was being framed by his nephew, Sameer Kumar Ranjan”.

Further investigation, including digital forensics, led authorities to Ranjan, a BCA graduate from Maheshi village in Sultanganj who had been unemployed since the Covid-19 outbreak.

“During interrogation, he (Sameer Ranjan) confessed to the crime and has been formally arrested. The accused used VPN to mask his identity and sent the threat via WhatsApp call,” said Kant.

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Police also discovered during preliminary inquiry that Ranjan had an “ongoing land dispute with his uncle” and made the threat with the intention of implicating Mantu Chaudhary.

The mobile phone used to issue the threat has been recovered, and the investigation is ongoing. Chaudhary has since been released, police confirmed.

PM Modi is currently in Rohtas district as part of his two-day visit to Bihar, which began on Thursday.

With Inputs from Agency