The Nagpur police commissioner on Tuesday said a Karnataka jail inmate who is suspected to have made threat calls to Union minister Nitin Gadkari has denied his involvement in the case and cops will now record statements of five persons who were in touch with him on phone.

Investigations so far have revealed the alleged caller, Jayesh Pujari, is an inmate of the Hindalga jail in Belagavi and was sentenced to death by a court in a murder case in the past, the Karnataka police said on Sunday.

The caller, who claimed he was a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, had made threatening calls to the Nagpur office of the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and demanded Rs 100 crore.

Talking to reporters here, Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said Pujari, a native of Mangaluru, was questioned by a Nagpur police team on Monday, but he denied making the threat calls to Gadkari.

The Nagpur police will now record statements of five persons, all residents of Karnataka, who were contacted by the suspect from the mobile phone used to make the threat calls, he said.

The call detail record (CDR) of the mobile number used to issue threats to the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was examined thoroughly, said the IPS officer.

As per the CDR, Pujari had made phone calls to these persons, too, and they will be questioned by the Nagpur police team stationed at Belagavi and their statement will be recorded under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Kumar said.

The CrPC section 164 deals with recording of statements and confessions at any stage before the commencement of an enquiry or trial. Statements made before a magistrate under the section is admissible in trial.

Pujari was identified on the basis of the phone number shared by the caller himself, police have said.

However, the mobile phone used in the crime was yet to be recovered.

The threat calls were received on the BSNL landline phone of Gadkari's public relations office on Saturday, the police said.

The calls were received at 11.25 am, 11.45 am and 12.32 pm, they said.

The caller told the phone operator that he is a member of the D gang and demanded Rs 100 crore from Gadkari, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Nagpur, a police official said earlier.

"He threatened to harm the minister with a bomb if his demand is not met. The caller also shared his mobile number and the address in Karnataka where he said the money must be sent," said the official.

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