Maharashtra: 19-year-old arrested for giving death threats to CM Shinde, son

Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Mumbai crime branch has arrested a 19-year-old student from Pune for allegedly giving death threats to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his son and MP Shrikant Shinde via social media, police said on Saturday.

According to Mumbai Police, the accused identified as Shubham Warkad is a first-year student, who is a native of Nanded district and had been studying in Pune.

While sharing details, police said, "19-year-old student Shubham Warkad, who posted death threats to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and MP Shrikant Shinde through social media platform X, has been arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch from Pune on Friday."

"According to the complaint, the accused had posted death threats to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his son Shrikant Shinde on social media on February 11," said police.

"After seeing this post on X, Mumbai Police immediately started a search for the accused who openly posted the death threats. The Mumbai Crime Branch took action and traced the IP address of the accused who had linked his Gmail ID, mobile number and his location. Subsequently, a team from the Crime Investigation Department reached Pune and arrested Warkad.

Police said, "We have registered a case against the accused under sections 506(2) and 505(1)(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), arrested him and started an investigation."

Police further said that the "motive behind the threat" is being investigated.

Further details into the matter are awaited.