Bihar Minority Affairs and Sugarcane Development Minister Khurshid Alam on Saturday received a call on his cell phone threatening him to kill if he did not pay extortion demand of Rs 10 lakhs.
The minister immediately approached the police and lodged an FIR. In his complaint, Alam said that a person made call on his cell phone and demanded Rs 10 lakhs as extortion, failing which, he would be killed.
The caller, he said, had identified himself as Imtiyaz from Govardhana.
"It appears a well hatched conspiracy to divert my attention from a series of programmes across the state launched for welfare of minorities," he told reporters.
"I have lodged a complaint with the police though I believe it is the work of somebody who is mentally imbalanced. Bihar has sushasan (good governance) and I am not scared. Such incidents cannot divert my attention from public service," he added.
The Minister claimed that during the past few days, he had visited several districts to make aware minorities about welfare schemes rolled out by the government.
Meanwhile, police said that they are investigating the matter and a search has been launched to nab the accused.
"An FIR was lodged at Purushottampur police station on Saturday on the basis of minister Khurshid Alam's written complaint. He claimed to have a received a threat call from a person who wanted him to cough up Rs 1 lakh," Bettiah SP Vinay Kumar said.
Significantly, this is the second time the minister filed an extortion complaint this year. In June, he had claimed to have received a similar call while he was at his residence in Patna. The caller was later nabbed from Bettiah.
