Dear Akhilesh Yadav, You Can Save A Man’s Life By Publicly Clarifying That He Never Gave You A Death Threat

Prashant Singh, a 30-year-old resident of Uttar Pradesh, has been inundated with frightening phone calls and social media posts demanding his death in the past three days.

Singh has shared with this correspondent audio recordings of several of such phone calls and screenshots of scores of such social media posts.

All this is because he called Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, ‘tonti chor’. ‘Tonti chor’ means a thief who steals water taps.

Fan pages of Yadav on social media, however, are spreading false information that Singh gave a ‘death threat’ to Yadav.

The misconception has arisen because Yadav himself publicly misrepresented what Singh said to him.

Singh has been trying to explain the truth to his haters, but they are refusing to listen to him. All they are inquiring about is Singh’s house address; all they want is ‘revenge’.

Here’s what has unfolded in the past three days:

On 15 February (Saturday), Akhilesh Yadav tweeted out a screenshot of some messages sent to him on WhatsApp on 16 January. The screenshot displayed the sender’s phone number as well.

The messages said,

Bharatiya Janata Party zindabad
Amit Shah zindabad
Modi Ji zindabad
Tonti Chor

Yadav wrote on Twitter that the messages were “personal threats” made to him.

Subsequently, all hell broke loose.

Word spread on social media that the person using the phone number has made “death threats” to Yadav. Yadav’s followers began calling on the number.

All efforts towards clarification by Singh are now proving to be futile. The mobs have painted a target on his back. Singh is now a marked man.

“I have kept the said phone number mostly switched off and have opened it twice or thrice in three days. As soon as I switch it on, calls pour in. Even late in the night,” Singh told this correspondent over the phone.

Here’s how two such conversations with unknown callers went (as translated):

One,

Caller: “Hello. Where are you?”

Singh: “Who are you?”

Caller: “Don’t ask who I am. Tell me where you are.”

Singh: “I am fine where ever I am. Please tell me what do you want?”

Caller: “You are Prashant, right? Don’t disconnect the call. Can you tell me what’s your location.”

Singh: “What do you want?”

Caller: “I can do the work only when we meet.”

Singh: “You are not telling me the work.”

Caller: “You will learn about it in one or two days.”

Two,

Caller: “You gave a death threat to Akhilesh?”

Singh: “No, I never gave him a death threat. It’s false information. He [Yadav] has deleted my number too.”

Caller: “They are writing that you are giving threats.”

Singh: “Who is writing?”

Caller: “Dawood’s men.”

Singh: “Dawood who?”

Caller: “The same Dawood. Underworld.”

Singh: “Bhaiya, why have you called me?”

Caller: “You gave threats to Yadav.”

Singh: “That’s what I am saying. I never gave any.”

One of the posts on Facebook (screenshot in the copy above), by one Thakur Harsh Solanki, says Yadav’s followers will beat Singh to a pulp and stuff straw into his body.

Another Facebook post, by one Bilal Khan, says he will make so many holes in Singh’s body that he will get confused where to ‘breathe’ from and where to ‘fart’ from. The post calls Singh as ‘Narendra Modi’s dog’, ‘Amit Shah’s paramour’ and ‘Yogi Adityanath’s illegitimate child’.

Singh told this correspondent that he has “gone underground”. “I have not been able to even approach police. They [the mob] will get to know if I visit police,” says Singh.

He says the only way he can be saved now is if Yadav clarifies to his millions of followers that Singh never issued him a death threat.

Since deleting his post that displayed Singh’s phone number, Yadav has not responded on the matter so far.