2 held for posts threatening to blow up Ram Temple, Adityanath: UP STF

Tewari has several cases against him lodged in Lucknow and is absconding, said an STF official. “We will nab him soon. He was behind this whole episode. In the past, he has claimed threats to his life and was given a gunner for his security,” said the official.

In a statement, the STF said the DGP headquarters informed the STF on December 27 last year that a handle on X, (@iDevendraOffice), had posted that a man called Zubair Khan, belonging to the terror organisation ISI, had threatened to blow up the Ram Temple, Adityanath, and Yash through an email. “After the information was received, an STF team started investigating the case,” said the statement.

The STF said it found during the prove that two cases had been lodged at Alambagh and Sushant Golf City police stations in Lucknow. “On going through the case details for both offences, it was found that two email addresses, alamansarikhan608@gmail.com and zubairkhanisi199@gmail.com, had been used for sending the threat messages. It was found that the email addresses were created by Tahar Singh and Om Prakash Mishra. Subsequently, they were both arrested,” said the statement.

During the questioning of the two accused, the STF said it found that one Devendra Tewari, a resident of Lucknow’s Banthra area, was behind the post.

“…Devendra Tewari, who has several cases against him in Manak Nagar, Ashiyana, Banthra, Gautam Palli, and Alambagh police stations in Lucknow, had told the arrested men to post threats on social media. Tewari runs a college in the Alambagh area named Indian Institute Paramedical Sciences, and he has an office there,” said the statement.

“Tahar Singh and Om Prakash Mishra worked at the office. While Singh worked as a social media handler, Mishra was deployed as a personal secretary. Mishra was also doing a two-year diploma course from the same college,” it added.

It further said, “On instruction from Devendra Tewari, Tahar Singh had created the fake email addresses and had shared the password with Om Prakash Mishra through WhatsApp. Two phones were also purchased from a shop in Naka Hindola in Lucknow, which were used to share the threat messages”.

“The threat messages were sent on November 19 and December 27, and Devendra Tewari shared the messages from his Twitter (X) account. After the emails were sent, the two mobile phones were burnt and destroyed by Tewari. The WiFi used for sending the emails was traced back to Tewari’s office.”

The statement said Tewari had told the accused that through these emails, “he would get highlighted on social media, his security would be increased and he would make big political gains”.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and those under the Information Technology Act.