AMN /
NEW DELHI: Father of Umar Khalid, a PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, today received a “death threat call from underworld don Ravi Pujari”. Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, who is also president of Welfare Party of India, has filed a complaint at the Jamia Nagar police station in this connection.
Khalid’s father had expressed his disappointment over his son being branded as a ‘terrorist’ because of his past. Police have provided security to the family at their south-east Delhi residence.
Mr Ilyas said that at around 5.30pm, his secretary received a call on the office landline. “The caller identified himself as Ravi Pujari and accused us of hiding Khalid. He said my son has been to Pakistan, which was again incorrectly reported by the media. The caller gave me a number and asked me to give it to my son. I checked the number on Truecaller and found it to be that of Ravi Pujari,” said Syed.
Sources said that preliminary investigation has revealed that the calls were supposedly made via VOIP. Police suspect that the caller may have got the number of Khalid’s family from the party office’s website.
Mr Ilyas said he had no idea of his son’s whereabouts. “I last spoke to him after watching his interview on a television channel. After watching the interview, I sensed he will get into trouble. So I called him and asked him to come home. But he was confident that there will be no motivated campaign against him,” he said.
Syed also clarified he was a member of the Students Islamic Movement of India in the 1980s but he said SIMI was not a banned organization then. “My membership expired in 1985. It has been more than 31 years. Why is that being used to target my son?” he said.
Khalid’s younger sister Kulsum Fatima has also received hate messages and threat messages on her social media profile.
Meanwhile, police on Friday continued their search for Khalid, absconding since JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest. Police teams conducted raids in Delhi, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and other states.