Bengal student receives WhatsApp message from Florida offering bounty to kill Mamata Banerjee

A college student in West Bengal received a Whatsapp message asking him to join a terror group and an offer of one lakh dollars for assassinating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The incident happened at Murshidabad district of West Bengal. A student of Behrampore Polytechnic College received a WhatsApp message on Wednesday afternoon. CID is currently investigating the matter.

It was found out that the message had come from Florida which invited him to join a terror group. Sources also said that he was offered one lakh dollar to assassinate Mamata. “The message said they were a terror group and were hiring people across the country and he had become one of the selected persons from Bengal. The student said he had replied with a refusal to the offer upon which the sender replied that they had an offer of one lakh dollars killing the West Bengal CM,” said a senior police official.

It has been alleged that when the student went to the local police station with the message to file a complaint, they refused to entertain him and asked him to switch off his phone for sometime. Officials also said that after the student left the PS, he received another message on his phone with his location near the PS  threatening him with life because of reporting the matter to the police. It is then that the student brought it to the attention of the CID.

Senior CID officials of the cyber cell have found out that the messages had been sent from Florida. “Yes. I have heard of one such complaint and we are investigating into it,” said Dr Rajesh Kumar, ADG, CID (West Bengal), without divulging details.