Dumped by wife, ‘deranged’ Bihar man issues threats to Sharad Pawar, sent to police custody

Mumbai: A man, who called up the home of Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar and issued repeated threats to kill him for not helping resolve his domestic brawls, has been arrested from Bihar, police officials said on Wednesday. Narayankumar Soni, who has been booked under various IPC section was produced before the Girgaum Magistrate Court which sebt him to police custody till December 16, said an official of Gamdevi police station which is probing the case.
As per preliminary investigations, Soni was living in Pune for over a decade with his wife. However, the couple quarrelled frequently and a few years ago, she finally dumped him to get married with another man, after which Soni reportedly lapsed into a “mentally disturbed” state.
Shocked by her decision, Soni apparently nursed a grudge against Pawar for not helping resolve his domestic problems and used to call up frequently with threats to “eliminate” the NCP supremo. Police said that he had been making these threat calls to the Pawar residence Silver Oak for the past four-five months, including last week and this week, and threatened in Hindi that he would come to Mumbai and shoot him with a country-made pistol. Though the Pawar household did not take the threats too seriously, as a precaution, this time the NCP leader’s security detail registered a complaint with Gamdevi police station which started investigations, and managed to nab Soni late last night.
The developments took place just a day after Pawar celebrated his 82nd birthday on Monday with a grand function attended by top leaders of the NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT and other well-wishers. Even in the past Pawar has been targeted with such threats, including in May this year, and in April his residence was attacked by striking activists of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation.