Brothers held for threatening to blow up CM’s residence

LUCKNOW: Two Gonda-based brothers have been arrested for sending a message on a police emergency response whatsApp number and threatening to blow up the official residence of Uttar Pradesh chief minister and 50 other places across Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Police said that the brothers, Swadesh Gaur alias Raja Babu, 21, and Manish Gaur, 18, who were arrested from their house in Gonda were being brought to Lucknow for further interrogation. The police claimed to have evidence about the accused sending the threat to frame another person. Police said while Swadesh had sent the message his brother Manish helped him to conceal evidence.

Earlier police had lodged an FIR against unidentified persons with Gautampalli police station in this connection. After receiving the threat message, the police have, as a precautionary measure, beefed up security in and around UP chief minister’s official residence at 5 Kalidas Marg.

Superintendent of Police (SP) of Gonda, RK Nayyar said that the accused brothers were residents of Tikar village under Chappia police station and added that they had sufficient evidence about the accused wanting to frame another person for threatening to blow up UP chief minister’s residence.A police official said the two brothers decided to send the message using the mobile number of the person they wanted to frame. However, their plan backfired as the police found out that the accused had used the hotspot of their phone number to send the threat from another number. “As we tracked the primary source, we discovered that they had used hotspot of their phone and that’s how traced the guilty,” a police official said.

“They got the idea after reading a news story about the arrest of a Mumbai man for sending similar message to target CM Yogi Adityanath on May 23,” the official added. On May 21, a similar message was sent on the WhatsApp number of UP-112 for which Mumbai resident Kamran Ameen Khan was arrested on May 23. A day later, another Mumbai resident Sayyed Wahab was arrested when he threatened to carry out blasts if Ameen was not released from police custody.