PATNA: A Patna resident has been arrested for posting a message in a WhatsApp group about a possible bomb blast at a rally of NDA in the city that would be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 3.
Udayan Chandra Rai, aged about 45, was picked up by police from his home at Kadamkuan area in the city after someone in the WhatsApp group informed police of a message he had posted. DSP (law and order) Rajesh Kumar said Rai was arrested on Tuesday and forwarded to jail after interrogation about the message he had posted.
The message he had posted in two WhatsApp groups named ‘Yaduvanshi Vikas Ekta Manch’ and ‘Sada India’ said: “There will be a bomb blast at Gandhi Maidan during the March 3 rally and entire north India will be shaken. More than four thousand people will be killed”.
Rai, who is a self-styled social worker allied with some groups of the Yadav caste, told police during interrogation that he had posted the message only to alert the administration so that foolproof security arrangement are made. Police seized the mobile phone and the SIM card from which he had posted the message.
Verification of his mobile phone number by police confirmed that he had obtained the SIM card in his own name by submitting his voter identity card. But the photo on the mobile service provider’s form was different from the one in the voter card, said police sources.
“My only son is innocent. He has never engaged in any criminal activity, let alone planning a bomb blast. He has been framed in this case,” said his widowed mother Baijayanti Rai, who had lodged a missing report about him with police when he did not return home on Tuesday. Rai is unmarried and lives with his mother.
Meanwhile, Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey held a meeting with top police officials to take stock of the security arrangements at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan and across the city in view of the rally. Nearly 4,000 policemen will be deployed in the city to ensure complete safety.
Serial blasts during Modi’s ‘Hunkar rally’ at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan in October 2013 had left six people dead and 80 others injured.