Over the weekend, pamphlets were pasted around Parliament in New Delhi offering Rs 11 lakh as reward anyone who killed Kanhaiya Kumar, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president who was released on bail in a sedition case on Thursday. The pamphlets were signed by Adarsh Sharma, "Son of Purvanchal" and president of the Purvanchal Sena, a fringe outfit that claims to work for the welfare of the people from the region comprising parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The Delhi police swung into action, questioning Sharma and filing a case against him for defacement of property before arresting him on Monday evening. Sharma had earlier claimed responsibility for the pamphlet and had defended his action, saying that Kumar was a traitor for raising anti-national slogans and that he wanted him dead.
On Monday, it emerged that Sharma has just Rs 150 in his bank account and has also not paid the rent for several months for his home in the Rohini area of Delhi, reported the Hindustan Times.
A death threat is no laughing matter, but there was a general sense on social media that the truth about Sharma's bank balance had taken the sting out of the warning.
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