Ranchi: Police in Jharkhand are trying to trace those behind a death threat letter sent to Cardinal Telesphore P Toppo, head of the Catholic Church the eastern Indian state.
The letter has asked Asia’s first tribal cardinal, who is the archbishop of Ranchi, to pay 50 million rupees or face dire consequences.
Police in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, are exploring all options to solve the mysterious letter allegedly from the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a Maoist outfit.
However, police officials are tightlipped about developments so far. They are yet to record statements of the cardinal who returned to Ranchi on Tuesday, nyoooz.com reported.
“We take all letters of this type very seriously. We are investigating the case and considering the sensitivity of the matter we would not comment at this stage,” said City SP Jaya Roy.
He said Wednesday that they would record the 75-year-old cardinal’s statement the same day.
The letter was sent from Kucchu village of Ormanjhi block through post and it bears the name of zonal commander of PLFI in Jharkhand-Bengal region, Michael Raj Kujur.
It wants the cardinal to pay the amount from his earnings. Also, the letter bears the name of the collector of the extortion amount, Amit and his phone number which has been examined by the police. “Yes, we have tried that number but there is no breakthrough in the case as of now,” said the City SP.
Sources, however, confided that the number has been confirmed to have been issued in West Bengal to someone named Amit and police are trying to extract call details to solve the case.
The letter instructs the cardinal to handover the money to Amit who, according to the letter, would be standing near Badabagan, a place in Shiudi in Birbhum district in West Bengal. The cardinal has been given 15 days time to comply with the demand.
Nonetheless, the mystery of the letter deepens further as it dates back to May 10 thus giving rise the probability of the letter being a hoax. “It happens that sometimes a letter turns out to be hoax yet we are examining all aspects of the case,” maintained Roy.