Threats – Journalists

A journalist working with an English daily was threatened to be shot dead for his reporting about RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, his family and party, according to a complaint lodged with police on Thursday. Amit Bhelari, who works with The Telegraph newspaper in Patna, said he received a phone call from a number not known to him on Thursday evening, and the caller abused him with unprintable foul language and threatened to shoot him dead.

“What rubbish have you been writing about Lalu’s family?… I will enter into your house and shoot you dead,” the caller is heard saying in the audio clip of the conversation that Bhelari submitted to police. Bhelari, who has been working as a journalist for over ten years, said this is the first time he received such a threatening call.

He lodged a written complaint at Kotwali police station and also gave police the number from which the call had come. “We have started a probe into the incident. It is a serious matter,” said Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj.