Karnataka High Court Judges Get Death Threats; Police File FIR

The Central CEN Crime Police Station here has registered a First Information Report against unknown suspects after the press relations officer of the High Court of Karnataka lodged a complaint about threats to the lives of several judges, besides himself, police said on Monday.

K Muralidhar lodged a complaint on July 14. He had received messages on the WhatsApp messenger from an international number at around 7 PM on July 12. His mobile number is the one provided to him officially by the High Court. The message in Hindi, Urdu and English allegedly threatened to kill Muralidhar and six judges of the High Court including Justice Mohammed Nawaz, Justice HT Narendra Prasad, Justice Ashok G Nijagannavar (retired), Justice HP Sandesh, Justice K Natarajan and Justice B Veerappa (retired) through a 'Dubai gang’, police said.

The message also had five suspicious mobile phone numbers and contained the threat. The FIR registered on July 14 states that the threat message demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh to be paid to a bank account in Pakistan.

After registering the FIR under Sections 506, 507 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 75 and 66(F) of the Information Technology Act, the police have submitted it before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, they said.