GUWAHATI: The imam of a mosque in Assam is cooling his heels in the custody of the police for trying to land an enemy in trouble by sending threat texts to a BJP MLA.
Police said imam Abdus Shahid of the Khilorband mosque in Karimganj district in southern Assam was trying to settle scores with a man to whom he owed Rs 50,000.
So he sent text messages in the name of his enemy to the BJP’s Patharkandi MLA Krishnendu Paul, claiming to have connections with a Bangladeshi jihadi outfit and Pakistan’s ISI and demanding Rs 50 lakh from the lawmaker.
Krishnendu Paul told Express, speaking on the telephone from Karimganj, on Wednesday, “In five text messages sent on October 15, he (Abdus Shahid) identified himself as an agent of the ISI and the JMB (terror outfit Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh), and hurled filthy words at me. He demanded Rs 50 lakh from me and threatened to kill me and my supporters. That’s when I approached the police.”
The MLA added that Shahid would also call him on the telephone but not speak when the call was received.
Karimganj superintendent of police Pradip Ranjan Kar said, “Abdus Shahid had enmity with a person to whom he owed Rs 50,000. So in order to land him in trouble, he sent text messages to the MLA. At the end of each message, he wrote the name of his enemy to give the impression that it was the latter who had texted them.”
This was the second such case in Assam this month. Earlier, a spurned suitor was arrested in Guwahati for threatening the state’s powerful minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a bid to get even with a woman who spurned his proposal.
The accused, Safiqul Islam, managed to get a SIM card in the woman’s name and sent threat messages to Sarma’s private assistant demanding Rs 5 crore.