Odisha CM gets death threat from murder convict

Bhubaneswar: A person convicted in a murder case has sent a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik issuing the latter ‘death threat’.

The letter sender, identified as Pushpendra Nath Chouhan (40) and an inmate of Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur Central Jail, has also demanded a ransom of Rs 50 crore from the CM, said police but refused to divulge the content of the letter.

He threatened in the letter that he would eliminate Patnaik and his top bureaucrats if the ransom was not paid. Interestingly, the criminal had mentioned the jail as the address at which the ransom amount was to be delivered.

The letter was sent through post and received by the Odisha Police on August 25, who in turn informed their Bilaspur counterparts on Sunday.

The Bilaspur police initiated an investigation and identified Chouhan as the sender of the letter. Booked in 42 cases of dacoity and murder, Chouhan is currently serving life imprisonment after conviction in two cases.

Chouhan has confessed to have written the letter to Patnaik in a bid to garner public attention. As per preliminary investigation, Chouhan has been found to be mentally unstable.

A report will be sent to the Odisha Police after a detailed investigation into the matter, Bilaspur police said, adding that Chouhan has a habit of writing such letters and had sent a similar letter to a district collector of Odisha in the past.

The Jail Department of Chhattisgarh Government has slapped a case against Chouhan. Prima facie it appears he wrote the letter to the Odisha CM during his production before court.