Newspaper vendor arrested for sending death threats to Sourav Ganguly

What’s the story?

Police on Friday arrested a 39-year-old, newspaper vendor named Nirmalya Samanta from West Midnapore for allegedly sending a threat letter to former India captain Sourav Ganguly.

A few days back the Indian cricket team legend had confirmed to PTI that he had received a letter saying, "Yes I've received the letter on January 7 and I've informed this to the police.”

In case you didn’t know...

On January 7^th a letter addressed to Ganguly’s mother was couriered to his Behala Chowrasta residence warning him not to attend a programme organised by Vidyasagar University on January 19.

The news of the letter created quite an uproar in the city which still hails him as a hero. Later, after he came to know about it, he complained to the police and to the ones who were organising the event.

Also, Ganguly is a cult figure in the state of Bengal and has been an integral part in roping in sponsors for many district sports.

The heart of the matter

On Friday, almost after a week, he received the letter, the police have nabbed the accused. He is a 39-year-old newspaper vendor from the district of West Midnapore.

In the letter to Ganguly’s mother, he had written of dire consequences if the star was to attend the event organised by Vidyasagar University where he was invited as the chief guest.

"Your son is hereby warned not to attend the programme. If he dares to come here, you will not see him again." Following which, Ganguly had filed a formal complaint with the Kolkata police.

What next?

The district police have handed Samanta over to Kolkata police for further questioning. But Ganguly has not yet spoken about the arrest. It will be interesting to see what he has to say about the whole incident.

The threat did not hamper Ganguly’s movements one bit, as he was quite frequent to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) office in the past week. And now with the arrest made, he has nothing else to worry about. He can now continue doing the great work he has been doing for the state body for the last year or so.

Sportskeeda’s Take

The letter did not for once deter the man from going normally about his day to day business. This shows the courage that he is so famous for. Just like old times, he stepped out and hit this problem into the stands like a ‘prince’.