Hazaribagh, June 9: Hazaribagh police yesterday apprehended an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus who has served in multinational companies for sending an email to Delhi police on June 2 threatening the life of the Prime Minister
Anurag Kanishk (40), a software engineer with a history of mental illness, today said he wanted to harass a family in his neighbourhood of Arya Nagar by insinuating against them through the email.
He had sent mail from a rediffmail account to Delhi police commissioner V.K. Gupta at 12.38pm on June 2, demanding job and compensation for his neighbour Vedahi Sharma, a Bokaro resident whose land had apparently been acquired by Central Coalfields Limited (CCL).
The mail read that if Sharma, who Anurag claimed was a widow, was not offered a job by July, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be "blown up" by a purported Maoist leader named Mahesh Ganjhu.
Acting on a tip-off from Delhi, superintendent of police Pankaj Kamboj led a raid at the cyber caf� from where the mail was sent and picked up its owner, Adeeb Hassan, on Thursday night.
After Hassan failed to provide any clue, police yesterday went to the residence of Vadehi Sharma, who, it emerged, was a man with a steady job with CCL.
Sharma and his family members told the police that they were receiving gifts and greetings cards from online shopping portal eBay in the last few months.
The parcels and cards carried hand-written addresses.
Kamboj asked the family if they knew anyone in the locality with sound knowledge of Internet. The Sharmas immediately took the name of Anurag, who was then summoned by the police. The SP identified Anurag as a person, who was recently named in a couple of police cases over online transactions.
He asked Anurag to scribble on a piece of paper. His handwriting matched with that on the gifts and cards sent to the Sharma family.
After he was arrested around 7pm, Anurag admitted his crime. Kamboj said that Anurag, who has a seven-year-old daughter, was deserted by his wife, a resident of New Delhi, a few years ago.
Sources said Anurag had recently put up a banner outside his Arya Nagar Mohalla residence to advertise loan offers through his newly formed company Kalki Integrated Private Limited.
However, the banner vanished a few days later and Anurag suspected Vedahi's son Manish of mischief.
Anurag told The Telegraph this afternoon he sent the mail to Delhi police with a mention of the Sharmas address because he wanted to teach Manish a lesson.
A resident of Hazaribagh and son of retired judicial officer Subhash Chandra Thakur, Anurag revealed that he had completed his schooling from DPS RK Puram in Delhi and graduated from IIT-Kharagpur in 2000.
He said he worked in various MNCs and joined the Pearson Group in 2003, working in the US till 2009, before returning to Hazaribagh.
Kamboj said Anurag had sold a mobile phone on eBay earlier, but the customer complained of a faulty set, prompting the company to stop payment to him. "This angered Anurag, who lodged complaints against eBay at various forums including police."
"The country head of eBay too reached Hazaribagh and lodged an FIR against Anurag," he added.
Anurag was also named by Mumbai police for making threatening calls to a businessman there and demanding Rs 5 lakh.
"He managed to wriggle out of the case on the pretext of mental illness. But this time he went a bit too far and tried to trap a family. He will face legal consequences. We will also forward Adeeb to jail, as he cannot escape his responsibility of not maintaining a log of customers," Kamboj said.
A defiant Anurag, however, said he was also fed up of unemployment and price rise in the country and termed Manmohan Singh solely responsible for everything.