K'taka CM, Lottery minister get threatening letter

Bangalore, Mar 30: Karnataka Minister for Small Savings and Lotteries Ramachandre Gowda today informed the State Legislative council that he had received a letter which threatened that he and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would be 'finished off' unless the state government withdrew its decision to ban lotteries from April.

Disclosing this during debate on the State Budget he said the letter which was anonymous, was written on a letter head of a lottery association and sent through post.

The minister, who read out the letter, said that the threat was made on himself as well as the Chief Minister that if the decision to ban all types of lottery was not rescinded, they and their family members would face threat to their lives.

Mr Gowda said that he had brought this to the notice of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and also handed over the letter to concerned authorities for action.

Cutting across party lines the members of the Council condemned such kind of intimidating letters and sought preventive steps to check such incidents.

Mr Prabhakar Kore who was in the Chair instructed the government to take stringent action on those who were behind such a threat.

UNI