Bengaluru contractor threatened from jail over garbage tender

The Story in Brief

Imran Anjum, a 36-year-old commercial waste contractor from Bengaluru, has filed a police complaint alleging that he was threatened with murder and pressured to surrender his garbage disposal tender. The Times of India reports that on June 2, he received an Instagram call from a man identifying himself as Grace Walter Joseph, who claimed to be lodged in Hindalga Jail in a murder case. The caller demanded Rs 30,000 a month as 'hafta' and told him to pay an associate, Prajwal.

When Anjum refused, the threats escalated. On August 3, he was summoned to an office in Banashankari where he was told the tender had been awarded to a man named Jayanth, associated with Walter. He was warned not to 'lose his life over a small matter'. After Anjum again refused, he was allegedly threatened with death. Police initially filed a non-cognizable report but later registered an FIR under sections 351 and 352. They have collected call records and screenshots, and a senior officer raised concerns about mobile phone use inside prisons.