Mumbai: An office-bearer of Maharashtra unit of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH), who received a death threat allegedly from fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari on Monday alleged that BJP legislator Ashish Shelar should also be held responsible, in case he is harmed.
Gulzar Azmi, secretary of JUH's legal cell of Maharashtra unit, had complained to the police on Saturday alleging that a man claiming to be Ravi Pujari rang him up at the office landline here and gave death threats warning that he should not keep any association with underworld don Chhota Shakeel.
Azmi today told reporters, "I have given a written complaint to police against Ravi Pujari, Ashish Shelar and unknown high ranking police officer for threatening me and conspiring to kill me. In case anything happens to me, then Shelar, Pujari and other conspirators should be held responsible."
The threat by Pujari came after Shelar, who is also party's Mumbai unit chief, last week alleged on the floor of the House during the ongoing Maharashtra Assembly session in Nagpur, that JUH collects "huge" donations to fight cases for people arrested on terror charges and should be banned as it "promotes" terrorism. The MLA also alleged that the outfit has links with the Chhota Shakeel gang.
The non profit organisation rubbished all the charges saying that they were completely "false, baseless and defamatory".
Azmi claimed that his outfit had been legally assisting many innocent people since several years but only after Shelar linked them with the underworld and demanded its ban, gangster Pujari dared to issue death threats to him.
"Hence I suspect a link between Shelar and Pujari. I strongly suspect the involvement of policemen in the episode as they too, have grudges against me as I always fought against them in the courts through my organisation," he added.
Azmi accused the BJP of targeting the JUH claiming that
the party was left with no serious issues and was trying to cover up its inability to perform at the government both at the state as well as the central levels.
The octogenarian said the outfit was providing legal assistance not only to members of the minority community, but also to non-Muslims held in serious crimes, including terrorism, who it believes are "innocent".
He claimed that they had account details of the money they received through donations. "We do not receive funds from underworld," he clarified.
Mumbai police crime branch is inquiring into the threat call case. However, no FIR has been registered in the matter so far.
