Union minister Shakeel Ahamed gets threat call from Dawood aide

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Shakeel Ahamed has said he got a phone call from an unidentified person, who claimed to be an associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, threatening to kill him.

The minister filed an FIR with Parliament Street Police Station on September 14, five days after the call was received by Ahmed's staff on September 9 when the minister was away on a visit to Patna to attend the funeral of a sitting member of the Bihar Legislative Council.

The anonymous caller told the phone attendant that Shakeel will be killed by September 12. The caller also hurled abuses at the attendant and the minister, the FIR said.

The case was handed over to the Special Cell which traced the call to a public call booth in north-west Delhi.

The owner of the booth was interrogated but nothing came out of it. "It seems to be a hoax call," DCP (Special Cell) Alok Kumar said.

Adding to the minister's discomfiture is the circulation of his fake letterheads which carried abusive language against Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi.

In the FIR, he has claimed that somebody has forged his letterhead and was sending letters to leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Ram Vilas Paswan. "We are investigating the case and so far nobody has been arrested," Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Anand Mohan said.