‘Tomorrow will be her last day’: Duo ‘plotting to kill’ Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrested

Uttarakhand police on Monday arrested two people for allegedly plotting to kill Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Pithoragarh district. The accused, apparently drunk, were discussing the assassination plan on WhatsApp ahead of the defence minister’s visit to Pithoragarh’s Dharchula town.

"We were alerted to the chat (about killing the defence minister) on a WhatsApp group at 9.30 pm on Sunday. We identified two persons between whom the chat was taking place and arrested them Monday morning ahead of the defence minister's arrival here," Pithoragarh SP Ramchandra Rajguru said.

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Police booked the duo under section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, Rajguru said.

In the WhatsApp exchange, one of the arrested persons said, “Main shoot karunga Sitharaman ko, kal uska akhiri din hoga. (I will shoot Sitharaman, tomorrow will be her last day)", according to police.

Prima facie it appeared that the duo was chatting in an inebriation state but the police was investigating if they had any criminal background or possessed any arms.

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Sitharaman visited Dharchula town on Monday to inaugurate a medical camp organised by the Indian Army to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday.

Smt @nsitharaman interacts with soldiers from Kumaon Scouts at Dharchula pic.twitter.com/pTdsUCQ0b3

— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) September 17, 2018