NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar alleged on Friday that the frequency of abusive calls and death threats that he has been receiving since 2015 have increased manifold in the last month.
The latest in the series is from an ex-CISF jawan who has sent him a video message threatening to shoot him in his office. Another person who claims to be from the Bajrang Dal in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh has been sending him exact details of his residence address, the route he takes from home to office, threatening to kill him and rape the women in his family.
“It is all well organised and has political sanction,” Mr. Kumar told The Hindu. His countless complaints to police in Ghaziabad and in Greater Kailash has led to no action.
Ravish is also getting abusive messages and comments on his Facebook page and WhatsApp and his family is threatens with dire consequence.
A tweet shared by NDTV shows an accused caller openly threatening the journalist. “Ek Din Mere Haataon Se Marega Tu. Dauda Dauda Ke Marunga, Yehan Se Pakistan Le Jaonga, Jahan Tumhara Ghar Hai (I give him a warning that you will die at my hands one day. Will make you run and chase you to Pakistan where you have your home.)”
Last year be wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi too detailing about these threats but drew no response from him. “I don’t think escalating the matter to Prime Minister will make any difference to him, in fact he will happily start following the very persons who are abusing and trolling me,” he added.
Here’s what he wrote:
I’m not only hopeful but certain that this will find you hale and hearty. I always pray for your good health and wish that your limitless energy remains intact.
The scope of this letter is very limited. It is common knowledge that social media today is fertile ground for trampling all over the decency of language. This is done not just by members of your party and your supporters but also those from the opposition. And their numbers are increasing every day.
The sad part is that you happen to follow some of these people on Twitter who use grotesque language and indiscriminately dole out threats. And you have continued to subscribe to their accounts even after their malevolence was highlighted in public and sparked controversies. That such people should be able to claim or have any affiliation to you does not behoove either you or the dignity of your office.
You must have chosen to track their accounts because of some special abilities that these people have. But I hope that the abilities to intimidate, abuse and incite communalism are not among them.”
Ravish is among the few journalists in India, who has been continuously exposing, often highlighting the truth, the issues that still plagues the country.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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