Ahmedabad: A Surat-based Income Tax official and his mother were allegedly threatened over the phone by a suspected supporter of jailed godman Asaram Bapu's son Narayan Sai for probing Sai in a case related to disproportionate assets, police said today.
In his complaint to the Umara police station in Surat yesterday, Income Tax Inspector Prem Pulninath, a resident of the Income Tax Colony in Majura Gate area alleged that a person called Bavaji had called him up on the land line number of his mother's residence in Ahmedabad on Friday, Umara police sources said.
After his mother picked up the phone, the caller allegedly threatened her that he would kill her son if he comes in their way, Umara police sub-inspector SM Soni said.
"The caller, who identified himself as Bavaji, asked Nath's mother to pass on the message to her son. He also asked her to make his son understand the consequences of initiating the probe. After this short warning, he hung up. Based on the mobile number of the caller, we have begun a probe," Soni said.
After learning about the threat call to him and his mother, Nath lodged an FIR yesterday, Soni said, adding that Nath is among Income Tax officers who are probing illegal investments made by Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai.
"Nath is one of those Income Tax officers who is probing a disproportionate wealth case against Sai and Asaram. The caller was angry at the officer for the probe and threatened him of dire consequences if he went ahead with the case against Sai," Surat City Commissioner of Police Rakesh Asthana said.
After their arrests in a sexual assault case in 2013, the
Surat police raided their followers' place in the city and found more than 40 bundles of files with documents related to the accounts as well as investments they made over the years.
Later, the Surat police roped in the Income Tax department for further investigations into the case and handed over these documents to them for a further probe.
Both Asaram and Sai are still behind bars.
The Surat police had booked Sai under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, rioting armed with deadly weapon, criminal intimidation as well as criminal conspiracy.
In her complaint, the younger of the two sisters had accused Sai of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at the Surat ashram.
