Birsa Munda Central Jail (Hotwar) jailor Pramod Kumar today appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with threatening call made from jail premises to Ashutosh Chaturvedi the chief editor of Ranchi-headquartered Hindi daily. Last week, Chaturvedi and his colleague , Vijay Pathak, had received threating calls from jail premises. The two senior journalists had lodged a complaint to police, followed by which the ED had summoned jail officials  for questioning.

The senior editor had also written to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren alleging threat calls made from Birsa Munda prison to the publication’s chief editor.

In a letter dated December 29, Vijay Pathak, the senior editor of Prabhat Khabar, informed CM Soren that their chief editor Ashutosh Chaturvedi had received a call from a person named Yogendra Tiwari and was threatened over recent coverage (on him).

Tiwari is an accused in a money laundering case, allegedly channelling income from illegal sand smuggling into liquor businesses. He is also allegedly part of the nexus linked to Prem Prakash, another accused in a PMLA case regarding illegal mining.

“I, too, received several calls from several landline numbers. However, I could not speak. We later found that all these numbers were from Birsa Munda jail,” the letter read.

On Tuesday, Jailor Pramod Kumar reached the ED office at Hinoo 10.40 am, however, he was asked to appear before ED office at 11 am. The jailor reached the ED office with documents. The ED has asked the jailor to reach the ED office along with CCTV footages and phone call details.

Liquor businessman Yogendra Tiwari was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 19. He is accused of illegal earning through liquor scam and money laundering.

In this case, ED had raided 34 locations simultaneously on August 23. These locations include Yogendra Tiwari’s warehouse located in front of Hotel Siddharth in Deoghar, residence located near Dr Rajeev Pandey Hospital in Bompas Town, M/s Santhal Pargana Builders Private Limited located in D-2 of Harmu Housing Colony and two locations in Jamtara in connection with illegal liquor and sand businesses and associated money laundering.

The Editors Guild of India also wrote to the Chief Minister on Saturday. “Mr Chaturvedi, who is a senior member of the Guild, has brought to notice that the newspaper has been publishing reports on the charges filed by ED, against some members of liquor mafia of the state. He received threatening calls from one MrYogendra Tiwari citing these reports. What is further alarming is that he received several calls from various landline numbers …all of which seem to be registered with the Birsa Munda Central Jail,” the letter read.

It added: “This is cause of great concern that a senior journalist and its chief editor of a leading newspaper is being threatened in response to news reports published in the paper… If any government officials are found complicit in facilitating this, then strict action can be taken against them.”