The IPL controversy surrounding Shashi Tharoor took another twist on Wednesday with the Union minister having allegedly received a death threat asking him to stay clear of the Kochi franchise and a gym trainer in Delhi has been detained.
Central Security agencies have detained Manik Verma, a gym trainer in connection with the SMS sent on alleged death threat to Tharoor from Dawood Ibrahim gang to his close aide Jacob Joseph, an Officer on Special Duty with the Minister for State for External Affairs.
Verma is a resident of Harinagar area in the capital. Official sources said the sleuths are inquiring about the motive behind sending the threat text.
Joseph alleged that the henchmen of Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim threatened Tharoor to stay out of IPL Kochi team or face death.
He claimed that the SMS message sent out said "stay out of IPL as D-Company is involved in it".
Sources said that a team of policemen met Tharoor and Joseph at the minister's residence.
Joseph said the Ministry of Home Affairs and police were alerted about the threat.
The detention of the youth came after security agencies traced a local phone number from which the alleged death threat from the Dawood Ibrahim gang was made.
Official sources said today the number used for sending the alleged threat message, received by the personal staff of Tharoor, was from Delhi circle.
Tharoor has been in the thick of a controversy after IPL commissioner Lalit Modi disclosed early this wweek that the minister had telephoned him not to reveal details about owners of the IPL Kochi franchise which included Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of the minister.
Pushkar has been given a free equity of around 19 per cent which is valued at Rs 70 crore in Rendezvous Sports World, which heads the consortium that owns the IPL Kochi team.
Tharoor received the death threat from a mobile number whose SIM card was procured using forged documents by an unidentified man in the name of a gym instructor, police said on Wednesday night.
Soon after tracing the number to west Delhi's Hari Nagar, police detained Manick Verma, the gym instructor but later released him after detailed interrogation.
"As of now, Verma is innocent. He is also a victim. He has nothing to do with this SMS. Further investigations are on," an official said.
According to sources, the same number was used earlier to send a "filthy" SMS to senior CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat.
The number was procured using forged documents in the name of Verma, an instructor at the Constitution Club gym and who resides in West Delhi's Hari Nagar, the official said. PTI
