Navi Mumbai police have registered a non-cognisable offence after journalist Rana Ayyub complained of receiving death threats and intimidation messages over WhatsApp from an unknown international number. The journalist, a Navi Mumbai resident who writes for the Washington Post, received repeated WhatsApp calls from an unknown international number, identified as 'Harry Shooter Canada', on November 2, an official from Koparkhairne police station told the news agency PTI.
Ayyub did not respond to the calls. The caller then sent messages threatening to harm her if she did not write an article in the Washington Post on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the killers of late Indira Gandhi. He also claimed that her address and personal information were known to him, and threatened that she and her father would be killed, the official said.
Based on the complaint, the Koparkhairne police on Tuesday registered a non-cognisable offence under section 351(4) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. A non-cognisable case is registered in minor offences. Police cannot make an arrest without a court warrant in such cases.