The central cybercrime police have stepped up the probe to track down an unknown person who sent a message on WhatsApp to the public relations officer of the High Court threatening to kill four High Court judges and two retired judges with the help of a Dubai-based gang and demanding ransom.
The accused used an international mobile number to send the message to K. Muralidhar on Wednesday evening and gave bank account details demanding ₹50 lakh ransom. The message in Hindi, Urdu, and English also shared five mobile numbers and stated that they were sharpshooters.
Based on a complaint filed on Friday, the central cybercrime police registered a case against the unknown person charging him under various sections of the IT Act, under criminal intimidation and section 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).
Going by the nature of the message, the police termed it as a hoax and said that it could be a desperate attempt by someone to implicate his opponent in a criminal case.
Based on the details available, the police are trying to track down the accused.
‘Shocking’
Terming it as ‘shocking’, the Advocates’ Association, Bengaluru on Monday urged the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to suo motu initiate a PIL petition “to bring offenders to book and to ensure protection for the judges”.
In a letter addressed to the CJI, the association also said that a time had come to review the entire system of protection given to all judges and to ensure that it met the modern challenges.
“People will lose confidence in the judiciary if it can be threatened in such a manner,” the association said, while pointing out that if such incidents, if allowed to proliferate, would allow outside forces to interfere with our institutions and was a threat to independence of courts.
