Mumbai Mayor gets death threat from Gujarat caller

Mumbai, Jan 6 The Mumbai Police have filed an FIR against an unidentified person who allegedly issued death threats to Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar and her secretary last month, officials said.

The call was made on the evening of December 22 on the mobile numbers of both Pednekar and her aide from an unknown number and the caller spoke in Hindi.

"The caller claimed he was calling from Jamnagar (Gujarat). He used a barrage of expletives and issued the threats. Following this I approached the Joint Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nangre-Patil and then lodged the complaint with Azad Maidan Police Station," Pednekar told mediapersons.

She added that she was busy in a meeting with colleagues at the BMC headquarters that evening and ignored the first call.

After a couple of missed calls, the person called her secretary and threatened to kill him, and even sent a death threat message.

When the person called Pednekar again, she took the call and put it on the speaker.

"He kept abusing me in foul language and warned me of dire consequences, and said he would kill me if I complained to the police," she said.

The police are probing the motives behind the caller's threats especially since the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation is slated to go for elections in early 2022.

Though police sources hint that the caller has reportedly been tracked and a team sent to pick him up, there was no official word on the developments.

The high-profile nurse-turned-Shiv Sena politician, Pednekar was elected Municipal Corporator from a ward in Worli and became Mayor in November 2019.

( With inputs from IANS )