Angry Rushdie claims Rajasthan police ‘invented’ plot to keep him away

The state government dismissed the charge saying Intelligence Bureau had given the inputs and it was not concocted.

A day after Mumbai police refuted reports that it had passed on information about “paid assassins” being on their way to eliminate Rushdie,64-year-old Rushdie took to microblogging site Twitter to vent his anger.

“Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie’ I’ve investigated,& believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry,” he tweeted.

Rushdie said he does not know if the false intelligence information was given by Rajasthan police under instructions from someone.

“Don’t know who gave orders. And yes I guess the same police who want to arrest (authors) Hari,Amitava,Jeet and Ruchir. Disgusting,” he said responding to a comment on whether it is the same police who now want to arrest writers for reading passages of his banned work ‘The Satanic Verses’ at the festival.

Rejecting Rushdie’s charge,a senior Rajasthan government official said,”It was the input of IB on the basis of which the organisers advised Rushdie not to attend the Jaipur Literary festival.

“It was brought to our knowledge today that Rushdie through twitter had said that the Rajasthan police tried to keep him away from the festival. It is absolutely wrong,” the official said.

“It is our duty that if we receive advisory on any threat perceoption against anyone,we provide full security to him,” Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said.