The advocate defending most of the accused in the July 11 train blasts case has alleged that the Ravi Pujari gang has threatened to gun him down if he doesn’t back out. Shahid Azmi had filed a complaint at Kurla Police Station on Tuesday. Not having received protection till Wednesday, he filed an application in the MCOCA court.

Azmi defends Faizal Sheikh, the prime accused in the blasts case, and most of the other accused. He also defends those accused in the May 10 Aurangabad arms haul case. Azmi met The Indian Express outside the police commissioner’s office on Wednesday. He said he received the threat call from phone number 022-25449658 at 7:14 p.m. on Tuesday and was told he’d be gunned down outside court-just like two undertrials were near the courthouse in Kala Ghoda on Monday.

“The commissioner has refused to meet me and the constables on duty at the Citizen’s Facilitation Centre say that the time for accepting complaints and applications gets over at 4:30 p.m.,” he said. “I came here after finishing my work at the court. There is no senior officer here that I can meet.”

But Police Commissioner A.N. Roy said: “I don’t know this man and he has not called me. If he is under threat, then there is a procedure to be followed. If he has filed a complaint than it will be investigated and appropriate action taken.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dhananjay Kamlakar did acknowledge that Azmi had informed him of appropriate action when he’s back on Thursday.

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