As Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman paid a visit to Dharchula town in this district of Uttarakhand, two persons on Monday were arrested after a WhatsApp exchange on a plan to allegedly kill Sitharaman.
The police, however, were alerted to the message at 9:30 pm on Sunday. “The two have been booked under section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act,” Pithoragarh SP Ramchandra Rajguru said.
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“We were alerted to the chat (about killing the defence minister) on a WhatsApp group at 9.30 pm on Sunday. We identified two persons between whom the chat was taking place and arrested them on Monday morning ahead of the defence minister’s arrival here,” Pithoragarh SP added.
The controversial message sent by one of the arrested reads, “Main shoot karunga Sitharaman ko, kal uska akhiri din hoga (I will shoot Sitharaman, tomorrow will be her last day),” police said.
It is being probed whether they have any criminal background or possessed any arms and ammunition, the SP said, adding, the credentials of the admin of the WhatsApp group are also being looked into.
Though the matter is still under investigation, prima facie it appears they were chatting in a state of inebriation, the SP further stated.
The Defence Minister visited Dharchula town to inaugurate a mega medical camp organised by the Army on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday.
Smt @nsitharaman addresses the gathering at the launch of medical camp at Dharchula, Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/tUAhONjgxO
— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) September 17, 2018