Francois Hollande visit threat a hoax

The French consulate in Bengaluru has got an anonymous threat letter warning French President François Hollande not to visit India on Republic Day. Though the police and intelligence agencies think it is a hoax, they escalated the heightened security threat to the VVIP, who is allegedly on top of the hitlist of Islamic jihadists, especially Daesh.

Mr Hollande has been invited as chief guest for this year’s Republic Day celebrations.

Threat letter on Hollande visit posted from Chennai “The French consulate on January 11 received an anonymous three-line letter from Chennai by post. The unsigned letter states that the French President should not visit India on Republic Day. It is written in broken English and the sentences are not well structured. The sender’s address on the letter has been verified and found to be non-existent. We have registered a case against an unknown person under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at High Grounds police station in the city,” said additional commissioner of police (west) K.S.R. Charan Reddy.

Though the Bengaluru police remained tightlipped about giving any further information, intelligence sources told this newspaper that the letter was posted by an unknown person from Triplicane in Chennai. “It was posted from the Triplicane area in Chennai, but the address is wrong. The letter begins with salutations to Allah and contains a map of India and the warning,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.