Mumbai: Rakesh Kumar Mishra, a 30-year-old unemployed man from Darbhanga in Bihar, who was arrested by the DB Marg police station for threatening to blow up the H N Reliance Foundation Hospital and kill industrialist Mukesh Ambani and his family, is mentally disturbed and has been suffering from chronic schizophrenia, his lawyer informed a city court on Monday.
The police on Monday produced Mishra before the court, seeking extension of his custody for further investigation. Advocate Shagufta Ishrail Shaikh opposed the plea and said that her client was mentally unstable. Submitting medical documents to bolster this claim, she said he was also disturbed due to his being unemployed and hence had possibly made the threat calls out of frustration.
“Mishra has been suffering from chronic schizophrenia and is also taking treatment for it. He frequently runs away from home. He was frustrated about rising inflation and believed that the central government was favouring Reliance, hence he made threat calls to them. Since he is suffering from a mental illness, he was unaware of the consequences of his act,” Shaikh said.
After hearing both the sides, the court on Monday remanded Mishra to judicial custody till October 21. The police had arrested him on October 6 from Bihar’s Darbhanga and brought him to Mumbai.
On Wednesday, the H N Reliance Foundation Hospital in South Mumbai had received two calls, the first around 12.57 pm and the second around 5.04 pm, on its call centre number. The caller not only threatened to blow up the hospital but also issued threats to kill Mukesh Ambani, his wife Neeta and their son Akash and to blow up the Ambani’s residence, Antilia.
The accused used his own mobile phone and the sim card registered in his own name and address. He also had his real name on the Truecaller app, and, most importantly, during the threatening call divulged his real name and address.
This is the second time the hospital has received threat calls in the last two months, leading to a beefing-up of security outside the hospital and Antilia. A similar call in August this year was traced to a 56-year-old jeweller, Vishnu Vidhu Bhaumik, who was arrested from Borivali.