Hindu activist arrested for sending threat letters to progressive Kannada authors

Bengaluru: Shivaji Rao Jadhav, a Hindu activist from Karnataka’s Davanagere district, has been arrested for sending threat letters to more than 15 progressive Kannada authors and thinkers, police said on Saturday.

Jadhav was arrested in the district by sleuths of the City Central Crime Branch (CCB).

The accused had been writing the threat letters since the past two years, leading to the targeted authors meeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on multiple occasions while demanding for swift action.

In the letters, Jadhav threatened the victims, including K. Veerabhadrappa, B.L. Venu, Banjagere Jayaprakash, B.T. Lalita Naik, Vasundhara Bhupathi, for going against Hindutva, saying that they should count their last days.

The case was handed over to the Special Wing CCB and experts of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had found that all letters were written by the same person but posted from different districts and taluks.

As a result of the letters, state Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara had directed the police to provide suitable security to the authors.

While confessing to his crime, Jadhav claimed that he threatened the authors and thinkers due to their anti-Hindu stand.

The police produced him before the court and took him to 10 days of custody for interrogation.

The development was taken seriously after the murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh and activist – writer Prof. M.M. Kalburgi in Karnataka.