A letter threatening the life of a sitting judge in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district was sent allegedly by a 74-year-old retired schoolteacher in an effort to frame a relative, police said.
The letter, delivered by Speed Post to the court of a Civil Judge in Rewa last week, demanded that Rs 500 crore be paid by September 1. “If you want to stay alive, you will have to pay the money,” the letter warned a judge, according to a police officer.
The threat triggered a multi-state investigation, led by Rewa Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh. “The letter had been signed in the name of Sandeep Singh, a resident of Lohgara village in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh,” the SP said, adding that “a team of Rewa police was dispatched immediately” to the village to trace the sender.
In Lohgara, police personnel combed through the village, questioning every man named Sandeep Singh. Each was asked to provide handwriting samples, which investigators compared against the ransom note. The search zeroed in on one Sandeep, who was taken into custody.
What emerged during interrogation, however, stunned the police. Sandeep insisted on his innocence and claimed that he was being framed. He pointed to a simmering feud with a relative, 74-year-old Devraj Singh, also from Lohgara, with whom he had quarrelled weeks earlier.
Acting on this lead, investigators pulled CCTV footage from post offices across Prayagraj. In one clip, they spotted Devraj mailing a letter. “When we confronted him, he initially tried to mislead us,” SP Singh said. “But under sustained questioning, he broke down and confessed.”
According to police, Devraj admitted he had sent the threat letter to frame Sandeep, believing it would ruin him. He told officers that he had earlier complained to police about the dispute but had been dissatisfied with their response. “What followed was his attempt to take revenge — a plan so drastic that it involved sending a death threat to a sitting judge in another state,” said a senior police officer.
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Devraj was arrested late Thursday night and brought to the Sohagi police station in Rewa. Investigators have seized evidence from the post office where he posted the letter, and samples of his handwriting have been sent to a forensic laboratory for verification.
