PVPF 2024

Police Are Yet to Apprehend the Individual Sending Death Threats to Writers

on Sep 05, 2022

Bengaluru: Since March 2022, the individual who has written at least 21 threat letters to over seven writers, including Opposition leaders Siddaramaiah, B.K. Hariprasad, and H.D. Kumaraswamy, have remained at large.

Following public outrage over the State police's inaction, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra appointed K. Santosh Babu, SP, Ramanagaram, as the nodal officer for the cases registered across the State in June.

However, the police have yet to apprehend the letter writer two months later. "We have some leads on the person, but we don't know who he is." "We'll catch him soon," said a senior police officer.

With two writers M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh killed in the state, police are trying to recover a hitlist of nine writers from their killers, death threat letters being posted to their homes, and the man still at large, the litterateur community has been shaken.

"Most of us vocal writers are under enormous pressure from family and friends not to make any public statements and, in effect, to withdraw." Some of us have given in, while others continue to speak out. However, there is an element of self-censorship that has crept in among some writers. "Many people have withdrawn from public life," said senior writer S.G. Siddaramaiah.