Pic: Umesh Marpalli

Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SK)

Udupi, May 5: Byndoor JD (S) candidate Ravi Shetty alleged on Friday, May 4 that he had received a threat call on May 3, asking him to stop campaigning in the upcoming state elections.

Addressing media, he said, “I received a call from an international number on my cell phone on the evening of May 3 at around 5.36 pm wherein the caller said that he was calling from Dubai. The caller told me that I should stop campaigning for elections or else I would be killed. I brought the matter to the attention of Kollur police and also filed a complaint at Byndoor police station,”

Ravi further said, “A week ago, hair, rice, lemon, vermillion-smeared pooja articles were found strewn in front of my house. But as I do not believe in superstitions, I threw them away into a river. Two days after this incident, I received another call asking to pay money for political campaign. I replied that we do not have the practice of lending money as we belong to a poor political party and are here to bring change in the society. The caller replied saying that if I have no money, I can join their party. The caller tried to bribe me to join BJP. After the conversation, I made a note of the number and gave it to police station,”

“I am very disappointed with this ‘dirty politics’, but will not back off at any cost. In fact, I will increase the intensity of my election campaigns. I am well supported by district president Yogish Shetty, state president H D Kumaraswamy,” he said.

Ravi said that he is provided with a gunman for security even after he said that he does not want one as that would hinder his campaign. But the higher officials did not pay heed and told him not to ignore the threat.