The Rajasthan government strongly refuted the charges made by author Salman Rushdie against the state police and said the government received messages related to threat perception to him.
Home secretary G.S. Sandhu said the intelligence agencies had given six messages between December 28, 2011 and January 20, 2012 to the government in view of threat to the author. Besides this, a dozen organisations also submitted memorandums saying if Mr Rushdie was allowed to visit, it may trigger tension.
He said the government was continuously getting inputs that Simi was planning to target the Jaipur Literature Festival. According to him, a former general secretary of Simi had given money to a person in June 2011 to target Mr Rushdie and the same person undertook a survey of Godrej guest house in Mumbai. Mr Sandhu cited an advisory sent by the Central government to the state government on January 17 informing that one former Simi functionary, Saqib Nachan, was planning to target Mr Rushdie during his Jaipur visit.
The advisory also referred to one Said Noori’s announcement that if someone hurled a shoe at Mr Rushdie, he would be given `1 lakh as prize and the Central government directed to ensure security.