The state government has on August 24 handed over the probe into death threat letters to several writers across the State for over a year now, to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru City Police.
This comes a day after a delegation of writers met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and requested for a special probe into these threat letters. The writers had also met Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara, who had promised a “probe by a special team to get to the bottom of the case”.
The order issued by Karnataka State Police chief Alok Mohan on Thursday has directed Bengaluru City Police Commissioner to form a special team to probe the matter, with an Assistant Commissioner of Police rank officer as the Investigating Officer (IO) and directed Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) to supervise the investigation. A total of seven FIRs that were registered over death threat letters to writers Kum. Veerabhadrappa, B. L. Venu, Banjagere Jayaprakash, B. T. Lalitha Nayak and Vasundhara Bhupati have been transferred to the CCB.
Senior writer K. Marulasiddappa who led the writer’s delegation to the chief minister and home minister over the matter, said that they were happy with a dedicated special probe instituted into the matter. “Death threat letters to writers is a serious matter in a democracy and has a chilling effect. It is a travesty that over a year and an investigation that claimed to have cracked the case, threat letters still continue to be posted to writer’s homes. We hope this probe at least gets to the bottom of the case, culprits are brought to justice and these letters stop,” he said.
Following an open letter to then chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, signed by 61 writers, expressing concerns over “rising communalism” in the state, in 2022, several signatories of the open letter started receiving death threat letters at their homes starting June 2022. All the letters have the same handwriting and are signed “Sahishnu Hindu”. At least 10 writers have till date got over 20 threat letters. While the state police had not even registered FIRs in many cases, a special inquiry led by the then Superintendent of Police, Ramanagara district K. Santosh Babu was instituted by the previous BJP regime in July 2022, following a report by The Hindu. This inquiry was disbanded after it arrested one Pradeep, a 28-year-old medical representative from Harihara, Davanagere in the last week of May, 2023. However, even after his arrest, threat letters have continued to be posted to several writers, prompting the writers to approach the government for a new probe and a change in the Investigating Officer.
