A 27-year-old radical Muslim cleric Maulvi Sohel Abubakr Timol is sent on 10 days police custody (remand). Police had demanded his custody over 16 unanswered questions for investigation.

Maulvi Sohel was arrested in Gujarat’s Surat on Friday over an alleged plot to kill BJP leaders and a leader of a right-wing organisation. The accused, Maulvi Sohel Abubakr Timol, threatened the chief editor of Hindi TV news channel, BJP’s Telangana MLA Raja Singh and the party’s former spokesperson Nupur Sharma in connivance with his handlers from Pakistan and Nepal, Surat senior police official Anupam Singh Gehlot said.

Sohel worked at a thread factory as a manager and also offered private tuition on Islam to Muslim children, he added.

Police had received information that a man was connecting people on a WhatsApp group, and posting content to hurt religious sentiment, and instigate communal violence during election. Based on the tip-off, police launched an investigation.

“Sohel’s mobile chats revealed he was conspiring with people from Pakistan and Nepal to offer Rs 1 crore ‘supari’ (contract for killing) and procure weapons from Pakistan to kill his first target, national president of Hindu Sanatan Sangh Upadesh Rana,” said Gehlot.

“After his detention, we found several objectionable contents in his mobile phones, including the one regarding offering Rs 1 crore for the murder of Updesh Rana. For this, he was continuously in touch with persons/numbers from Pakistan and Nepal,” Gehlot said.

“Photos and other details found on his phone number show they (accused and associates) were discussing on a secure app about targeting and threatening editor-in-chief of a Hindi TV news channel, Suresh Chavhanke, political leader Nupur Sharma, and Hyderabad MLA Raja Singh. For this purpose, they were planning to collect funds and procure weapons,” Gehlot said.

Chat records showed Sohel wanted to disturb communal harmony during the ongoing general elections, a senior police official said, adding that Surat police was taking the help of other agencies to find out if they had more targets in mind.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Sohel was in contact with two people identified as Dogar and Shehnaz having phone numbers belonging to Pakistan and Nepal, respectively.

Around a year and half ago, the two people contacted the accused through social media on phone numbers belonging to Pakistan and Nepal. They instigated the accused by claiming the Nabi had been mocked by Hindu organisations in India and these need to be straightened out.

On the chat app, Sohel wrote speeches against Hinduism and threatened Rana that he would be murdered like Kamlesh Tiwari, police said, adding that a member of his chat group had sent Rana’s photo with a Rs 1 crore offer to murder him.

Kamlesh Tiwari (Uttar Pradesh-based president of the Hindu Samaj Party was killed on October 18, 2019 in Lucknow).

The arrested accused was in contact with holders of Whatsapp numbers with codes of different countries like Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, police official said.