Maharashtra Doctor Detained for Sending 'Poisonous' Envelopes and 'Letters in Urdu' to Pragya Thakur

Aurangabad/Bhopal: A doctor from Maharashtra's Nanded district has been detained by the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) after BJP lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur alleged that she received some envelopes containing poisonous chemicals in them. Police later seized three to four envelopes from her residence, some of which had letters written in Urdu.

Inspector Pradeep Kakade of Itwara police station in Nanded was quoted as saying by news agency PTI that the state ATS found that Dr Sayyed Abdul Rehman Khan (35), who runs a clinic in Dhanegaon (in Nanded district), had sent these suspicious envelopes to Thakur.

"The MP ATS detained Khan on Thursday evening from Dhanegaon. He had been on the police's radar for the last three months, as he had previously written letters to some government officials, claiming that his mother and brother had terror links and they should be arrested," Kakade said. The officer said that Khan was previously arrested for writing these letters.

"The police tried keeping a tab on him using his mobile phone location. However, he would leave his phone at home and travel to Aurangabad, Nagpur and other cities to post these letters," Kakade added. Khan also had a dispute with his brother and was earlier arrested for assaulting him, the official added.

Based on Pragya Singh Thakur's complaint, Kamla Nagar police in Bhopal had registered a case against an unidentified person on charges of criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing grievous hurt.

Earlier, some reports stated that the letter had crossed out photos of Thakur, PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, with a message saying that the lawmaker had "insulted Mahatma Gandhi and the former Mumbai's Anti Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare".

Thakur had then said that it could have been sent by 'terrorists' but expressing confidence, she added that she wasn't scared of them.

The BJP lawmaker, an accused in the Malegaon blast case and often in the news for controversial comments, was recently spotted flying kites with slogans emblazoned to support Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), scrapping of Article 370 and Ram Temple. She described her gesture as a 'slap' on the face of 'anti-nationals' opposing the new law (CAA).

(With PTI inputs)