A day before the Independence Day, several judges of the Calcutta High Court received anonymous threat letters saying two terrorist outfits — Jamat-ud-dua and Lashkar-e-Toiba - have deputed a professional killer from Bangladesh to take revenge against the judiciary for awarding death sentence to Aftab Ansari in the 2002 American Center attack case. The High court, at present, is hearing Ansari’s appeal against the sentence that was awarded by the Alipore Special Court in 2005.

At least 20 such computer printouts of the single-page letter, written in English, were addressed to the sitting judges of the High Court. The letters were delivered on August 14 through normal post.

The letter even named the “would-be” assassin as Noor Ali Salami (30) and added that he has taken shelter at Ripon Street, near the CPM office. Surprisingly, the two judges of the High Court who are hearing Ansari’s plea — Justices Asim Kumar Banerjee and Kalidas Mukherjee - were not sent the threat letters.

The High Court soon informed the Kolkata police about the letters and a police team reached there to check the security arrangements. While Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) Jawed Shamim said the case is being investigated by the Special Task Force, the chief of the STF, Rajiv Kumar, said Special Branch of Kolkata police is probing the matter. An inquiry is on to trace the sender of the letters and the identity of the person named in it.