BENGALURU: A 57-year-old army cafeteria contractor has allegedly received WhatsApp threats from two men claiming to be associates of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim . They asked him to pay Rs one crore to save his family.

Ashwani Agarwal, a resident of Viveknagar and cafeteria contractor at Army Supply Corps (ASC) Centre, said his family has been in the business for at least three generations.

According to the complaint filed by Agarwal, he got a Whatsapp call on January 25 while he was on his morning walk at the ASC Centre. The caller claimed to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. He said he and his associate were in Bengaluru for three months and demanded Rs one crore. They threatened to kill Agarwal’s family members if the money was not paid, police said.

The accused said their first target would be Agarwal’s younger brother Pavan. While Agarwal initially didn’t pay heed, he started receiving messages and calls. He filed a complaint with Viveknagar police, who swung into action and traced the phone number to Begur near Electronics City.

Based on directions of police, who hatched a plot to nab the accused, Agarwal agreed to pay the sum and asked the accused to receive it in Begur. However, they never turned up.

Police, meanwhile, nabbed a person using the same phone number but he claimed innocence. He was taken into custody for questioning. The user of the WhatsApp account from which Agarwal got calls was finally traced to Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.

Agarwal said he received calls and messages on Monday morning and the accused asked for Rs 50 lakh, failing which they threatened to killed his family members. The caller was also furious over Agarwal approaching police. “The caller asked me to state who from my family should be killed,” Agarwal said.

Viveknagar police said they have already zeroed in on the accused and are probing whether they are really Dawood’s associates. “One man is in our custody and his name can’t be disclosed as the probe is on,” an officer said.

