New Delhi: An anonymous letter sent Nagpur Police into a tizzy Wednesday. It claimed chairs at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters, besides public transport leading to offices of the Sangh and BJP, had been sprayed with the radioactive isotope Caesium-137 “to avenge hatred against Dalits”.
Sent by speed post and received by all top police officers in the city, the letter prompted a thorough search operation and subsequent investigation. The anonymous letter, received first at the office of the police commissioner of Nagpur, was sent in the name of “DSS”, without a full abbreviation of the outfit, sources in Maharashtra Police told ThePrint.
The RSS is the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power in Maharashtra and the Centre.
Reacting to the developments, Nagpur Police Commissioner Ravinder Singal said an investigation is underway to establish the source and purpose of the anonymous letter.
He, however, added that police will have more clarity only after arrests are made.
“Yesterday, we received a letter talking about sabotaging certain areas. We are currently investigating the source and the writer of the letter. Additional information, such as its purpose and whether it has been sensationalised, will be known once we get our hands on the accused,” he told the media Thursday.
He told ThePrint over the phone that the Nagpur Police have registered an FIR under BNS sections 351 (2) (criminal intimidation), 353 (2) (mischief) and 196 (2) (a) (enmity between groups based on religion, race, place of birth etc).
Sources in the Maharashtra police told ThePrint that the anonymous letter claimed Caesium-137, a radioactive isotope of Caesium, had been sprayed at the RSS headquarters and office in Reshimbagh area of Nagpur city. The Reshmibagh office is a complex housing a memorial to the founding fathers of the RSS, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar.
“It is highly radioactive. Go to the hospital and find out. The families of RSS are also infected with Caesium. We got this from a cancer hospital. This is the punishment for hating Dalits,” read the letter, according to sources privy to its contents.
The letter, said sources, also claimed that the radioactive isotope had been sprayed on metro trains and buses which halt at RSS and BJP offices in the city. “The letter gave reference to seats on the Orange & Aqua lines of the metro,” said one source.
Symptoms of radiation sickness include nausea, vomiting, headache and diarrhea.
Those who sent the letter also claimed responsibility for keeping gelatin sticks and detonators outside the residence of one Dr Ujjawal Lanjewar earlier this month, it is learnt. Nagpur Police had recovered 15 gelatin sticks and 58 detonators, including eight with connectors inside, from the garden of Lanjewar’s residence near Dossar Bhavan chowk, located barely 5 km from the RSS headquarters in central Nagpur, on 7 April.
However, sources rejected the claims of involvement in that case, saying the actions were traced to a disgruntled suspended police constable.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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